
Qass— 
Book- 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



A VISIT TO 



Uncle Tom's Cabin 



D. B CORLEY, of Abilene, Texea 

Author of "Lives of the Twelve Apostles'' 



i LLUSTR ATED 




Uncle Tom's Cabin is now on exhibition within the enclosure of the Libby Prison 
War Museum, Wabash Avenue, between 14th and 16th Sts., Chicago 



CHICAGO 

LAIRD & LEE, Publishers 
1H93 



/ 




EUGENIE CHOPIN, 



A VISIT TO 



Uncle Tom's Cabin 



d7 B. CORLEY, of Abilene, Texas 

Author of "The Lives of the Twelve Apostles" 



LLUSTRATED 



Copyright, 1892, by D. B. Corley 



nfi^^y^ 



CHICAGO 

J^A.1RT> & IvKE, F»ublishers 
1892 



J3 v-N' 



A Visit to Uncle Tom's Cabin, 



LATE in the month of August, 1892, 1 decided to make 
a visit to the old plantation in Natchitoches Parish, 
Louisiana, where I knew the original "Uncle Tom's 
Cabin" was still standing, just as it stood the day that 
the old slave died the tragic death that has been 
accorded him. And knowing that it was situated in 
the Southern portion of the parish, some twenty miles 
from the parish site Natchitoches, I decided to go first 
to that place and ascertain from the Records of Deeds 
and whatever else I could find, something more of the 
authenticity of the "story," it being my purpose, in case 
I could establish the fact that it was the real cabin, to 
make such terms as might be made with the owner of 
it, and then remove it to Chicago, 111., where it would 
be placed upon exhibition during the World's Fair to 
be held in that city in 1892 and 1893. 

In accordance with this plan I arrived at the old town 
of Natchitoches, situated on the west bank of the Red 
river, on the morning of the 30th day of August. 

It is a singular looking town to almost any one, and 
especially so to a western man who is accustomed to 
seeing towns and cities only that are fashioned after 
American ideas and American fashions of the Nine- 
teenth Century. It consists of a long, crooked row of 
houses fronting upon one street, and all on the 



4 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 

same side of the street. This street, running up and 
down the river and lying between the house-fronts 
and the river banks, composes the business thorough- 
fare as well as the approach to or from the place. 
The steamboats in olden times would land anywhere 
along this street that was convenient to put off or 
take on their cargoes. It is about forty feet wide 
and as crooked as the original meandering of that 
notoriously meandering river was at the time the town 
was founded. One could tell at a glance that he was 
neither in Damascus nor upon the "street" called 
"straight," for Damascus has a straight street and 
a river, while Natchitoches can scarcely be said to 
have either. 




NATCmXOCHES. 

I was told by the citizens of the place that the 
nearest point then to the Red river from their town 
was six miles away. And this was told me by an old 
man with an emphasis, impressing me with the idea 
that he expected it would return at some day not far dis- 
tant. Whether he was correct, and that Red river 
will come home to that town and people in the sweet- 
bye-and-bye or not, I can not tell. But for the pres- 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN 



5 



ent, let me assure you that the town fronts upon a dry 
river bed. The houses are altogether of the old South- 
ern style, one story, with heavy columned porticoes 
in front, while the people there take great delig^ht in 
telling you that the town is the second oldest town in 
America. 




RIVER BED IN FRONT OF NATCHITOCHES. 

Shortly after my arrival, I called upon the clerk of 
the parish at the courthouse, whom I found to be a 
very estimable gentleman and possessed of the in- 
formation I was in search of. He told me at once that 
the Legree plantation was situated in the lower por- 
tion of the parish, and that while the name "Legree" 
had been given to the public as the cruel slave-holder 
in the story of ''Uncle Tom's Cabin," that in reality his 
name was Robert McAlpin. He further gave it as his 
opinion that the fictitious name "Legree" was used by 
the authoress of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" to prevent him, 
Robert McAlpin, from laying a suit for slander or def- 
amation of character against her if he should choose 
to do so. 



6 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN 

The clerk also gave me a kind of abstract of the 
tract of land upon which the "cabin" stood. He said 
that it was granted by the government to Richard 
McAlpin, who lived at that time, he thought, some- 
where in New England; that he never came out to 
that country at all, and that after his death his nephew, 
Robert McAlpin, fell heir to a portion of the tract of 
land and came forward and settled upon it, and after- 
ward bought up the interest his brothers and sisters 
had in it, and shortly became sole owner of it. There 
were 4,800 acres originally in the grant and that he, 
Robert McAlpin, alias "Simon Legree," lived there 
until his death, which occurred in 1852, at which time J. 
B. Chopin, the father of the present owner, bought it at 
administrator's sale. After the death of J. B. Chopin 
thetract was subdivided among his children, and that 
the old negro cabins and McAlpin's residence fell to 
his son, L. Chopin, the present owner. The records of 
his office show these facts. 

It was in this office that I was inti*oduced to the 
district attorney of that district by the parish clerk, 
who proved to be a brother-in-law of Mr. Chopin, the 
present owner of the "cabin." From these gentlemen 
I learned the fact that Mr. Chopin was in town 
at the time and that he had happened to the griev- 
ous loss of Mrs. Chopin, who had recently died. 
Though as yet he had not been seen outside of 
his residence. Instantly I felt at a loss as to the course 
to be pursued by me. I had gone six hundred miles ex- 
pressly to see the gentleman, only to find upon my 
arrival, of his late misfortune and possibly of my not 
getting to see him at all. 

There is something in Southern chivalry not met 
with in all parts of the world, which both these gentle- 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 7 

men instantly manifested. They assured me that I 
should meet Mr. Chopin, and fixed the hour at five 
o'clock that p. m. for that meeting, and said further 
that instead of it being a breach of any rule of courtesy 
for me to offer to see him under the circumstances, 
that they were glad of my coming and glad of the 
opportunity that I would have in the approaching 
interview to help them dispel the gloom then hovering 
over their friend. Such words so freely spoken not 
only relieved me from my seeming embarrassment, but 
put me on guard as to my Christian duty at that meet- 
ing. We met, and in a gentle way I discharged that 
duty that one Christian owes to another under such 
grief-stricken circumstances, and I did so to the best of 
my ability. After an interview which was neither 
hasty nor prolonged too long, we separated to meet 
again the next day. 

Again we met as per agreement, when it was decided 
that we would visit the old plantation on the next day 
and make a personal inspection of the "cabin," 
Legree's residence, his grave and such other relics and 
remains of that dark and dismal time and cruel and 
brutal man, as might still be found in existence there. 
Where both he and poor Tom last saw the light of that 
life which, though bountifully given by heaven as a gra- 
cious gift and blessing, had proven asourceof longand 
sore distress to the one and, I doubt not, eternal dam- 
nation to the other. Having now made all necessary 
arrangements for the trip of the morning, which was to 
culminate a desire which I had cherished from my 
earliest boyhood by bringing me face to face with the 
most romantic and historic scene of my life, I next 
decided to employ the intervening time in inquiring of 
some of the older people of the place as to what they 



8 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 

knew of "Legree" and his conduct as a man away back 
in the forties and fifties. 

From faces already met by me there was no doubt 
in my mind but that plenty such could be found who 
would be really more at home fifty years back than at 
present. Notwithstanding the well authenticated rumor 
that a man cannot expect an assured longevity of 
life in the lower Red river country, yet it is a fact 
that in that country one will meet and continue to 
meet persons, both male and female, white and black, 
native and foreign born, whose hoary heads and deep 
wrinkled faces unmistakably suggest great age. 

Acting upon this plan I started out along the afore- 
mentioned unstraightened street; nor had I proceeded 
very far before noticing an old man sitting at a state of 
rest upon a long bench under a mulberry tree in front 
of a saloon. Drawing near I saluted him, and taking 
my seat upon the other end of the bench proceeded to 
engage in conversation with the old gentleman. After 
we had exchanged a few words, which led me to the 
conclusion that he would engage in conversation with 
me, I offered him a cigar, which he politely declined 
saying that he had managed to live seventy years with- 
out taking up that habit and that he would not do so 
now. "But," said he, "Mister, I've made up at other 
ways and tricks all that I have ever lost by not smok- 
ing." 

"Ah," said I, "it is written that 'every path hath its 
puddle;' and while you have not traveled all the paths 
of filth and vice, you have nevertheless .splashed 
through your portion of puddles." Said he, "You bet 
I have." 

"What is your name and nativity?" I asked. 

"My name is Sam Parson and I am a native of Penn- 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 9 

sylvania, but I have lived pretty near all my life in this 
here town." 

"Then you must have been here among the first 
settlers." 

"First settlers! no! no! This is an old town, so old 
nobody knows how old it is. It was a better town 
when I come to it than it is now; somehow it has not 
done well for the last fifty years or so." 

"Have you been acquainted with it that long?" 

"Yes, and longer, too. You see when I was a boy I 
was bound as an apprentice to a man up in Pennsyl- 
vania, and I worked with him two years and did not 
like him, so I run away and come South. I come to 
this town in 1835, ^^^ it was a good town then. You 
see, at that time all the emigrants that settled Wes- 
tern Louisana crossed this river here and afterward 
when the people got to going as far west as Texas,* 
they all crossed here, too, and it made things lively." 

"You must have had a good trade at that time." 

"Trade! I tell you, sir, that they brought all their 
cotton from Houston and Austin and all Southeast 
Texas here on ox wagons, and sold it and bought all 
their supplies here. It was the liveliest town, in fact, 
that I ever saw, sir." 

" I suppose money was plenty in those days, was it 
not?" 

"Plentiful! You never saw the like in your life; and 
I made money, too. You see, I owned the ferry here, 
and it just kept me busy from the end of one year to 
another to put the folks over, and I'll tell you. Mister, 
they were the strangest folks you ever saw — they 
would just come and go. I think I have set the same 
families over the river as many as a dozen times, going 
and coming from Texas. And to tell you the truth. 



£0 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 

sir, I do not know which side of the river they 
stopped on at last. Some of them traveled back and 
forth in this way until they wore out their wagon 
tires." 

"Well, your business must have been a profitable 
one to you." 

"It was. I made lots of money, but then I fooled it 
all away somehow or other. You see, this was a great 
crossing. I ferried over a portion of Gen. Taylor's 
army here when he went to Mexico to fight the Mexi- 
cans. That was in 1846 and '47." 

"Well, I suppose you lost the most of your earnings 
by the late war, being here and making money so 
early. I presume you invested in slaves and lost them 
like all other slave owners did." 

"No, sir, I did not lose that way. I never owned 
but one slave in my life, and he was a good boy. 
I lost him when they set the niggers free, but then I do 
not care for that, for I intended to set him free any- 
how when he got grown. I raised that boy and 
I never did strike him but once in all his life, and 
I always was sorry for that. He is the best friend I've 
got to-day in this world. H^ was powerful likely, he 

was. That cussed nigger trader heard me say when 

the Yankees were blowing up Vicksburg, that I 
believed that they would set all the niggers free. He 
just slapped his hands on his breeches' pocket andsez: 
* I'll give you $2,200 in $20 gold pieces, right now, for 
your boy Jim.* I told him that I would see him in hell 
before he should have Jim.' So he let me alone. No, 
I didn't invest my money in niggers, but I put it in 
houses and lots right here in this town. Why, sir, at 
vpne time I owned in this town forty houses." 

"Do you not own so many to-day?" 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOMS CABIN II 

"So many to-day? I don't own a darned one." 

"Why, how happened that?" 

" Don't know; they went off and got a woman and 
brought her here, and she laid claim to about half of 
this town, and she brought suit for it, and I gave 
a lawyer a paper to represent me in the matter which 
he said was a power of attorney, but it was afterward 
found to be a deed. And him and the woman between 
them somehow got all I had. 

" I never seed such a time. You see, she not only 
got all my houses and lots, but she actually wanted me 
to pay rent on the lots while I had used them, just as 
though I had never bought and paid for them. But 
then I didn't do it." 

"So you lost all you had by her coming in and 
claiming the land?" 

"O, yes, of course I did. Who ever heard of a fel- 
low beatin' a cryin' woman in a suit at court? I 
tell you it's all stuff to fight 'em." 

" This was pretty heavy on you and I am surprised 
that the court divested you of your title and invested 
it in her, did not provide for you being paid for your 
improvements." 

"Surprised — well, you need not be. I am a much 
older man than you are, and I have yet to see the first 
court that had a lick of sense about anything, when 
there was a crying woman mixed up in it." 

"Well, well," said I, "you are truly a historic char- 
acter and I am glad to have met you. You say you 
settled in this town in 1835 ^^^ that you have lived 
here ever since; you must have known something .of 
the cruel slave-holder, 'Simon Legree,' who was writ- 
ten up in a little book called 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.' The 
book appeared about 1852, I believe. And the whole 



12 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 

scene was laid on the Red river here in your parish. 
Do you remember such a man?" 

*'I guess I do, and I not only remember the man, but 
I remember him as the meanest man that I ever knowed 
in my life. Why, he lived in the lower part of this 
parish right on the bank of the river, and was the ter- 
ror of the whole country. But say, how come that 
woman up North who wrote that book to get his name 
wrong? His name was not 'Legree,' it was old Bob Mc- 
Alpin. She got the house and the locality and even 
the circumstances, as far as I know, all correct, but she 
missed the name. That was old Bob McAlpin. I 
knew him well. He was the worst man in the whole 
country. That woman did not tell one-half of his 
meanness. He sewed up a nigger in a sack and 
drowned him in the river. 

'His chief delight was to torture his own negroes, 
even unto death. And he done it as often as his hell- 
ish spirit prompted him to do it. Yes; he did live and 
die there, as she wrote, but he was a heap meaner man 
than she ever made him out to be. Oh, he was bitter, 
he was so severe, and then he would drink so much, 
and all this seemed to enrage him the more. Yes, he 
was an old bachelor. I knew him well; he died drunk, 
just as she said, and was buried there on the plantation 
on a hill. I think that he come to this country from 
one of the New England states, but I could not tell 
you which one. I could come nearer guessing where 
he went to from this country than I could where he 
come from, if the Bible is true." 

Being satisfied with my investigation and conversa- 
tion with this man as to the identifying of "Legree," 
the plantation and the "cabin," we turned the conver- 
sation onto living issues of a later date, and finally 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM*S CABIN 13 

dropped it altogether and separated. I learned after- 
ward that Mr. Parson had once been sheriff of the 
parish. 

Soon, however, I found myself engaged in conver- 
sation with another old timer of that section. It was 
L. Charleville this time, and a merchant of Cloutier 
ville, La. He was a fluent talker and conversed freely 
with me upon the subject. He said that he knew the 
**Legree" of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" well, and that his name 
was Robert McAlpin; that he had lived right there in 
that section all of his life; that he had served in the 
Mexican war under Gen. Taylor, and in the Confeder- 
ate army under Gen. Lee; that he believed Robert 
McAlpin was among the crudest, if not the crudest, 
slave-holder he ever knew. He had read the book of 
"Uncle Tom's Cabin," and said Mrs. Stowe did not tell 
of one-half his meanness. That he was notoriously cruel 
to his slaves. That at times they would despair and 
kill themselves. 

He remembered one case in particular, where at his 
grandfather's sale some negroes were being sold and 
that Robert McAlpin bid upon one of them, whereupon 
the negro (a man) spoke out and said to McAlpin, "If 
you buy me I will kill myself before night. I will not 
try to live with such a man as you are." That upon 
such a positive statement McAlpin ceased to bid and 
the negro was struck off to some one else. That McAl- 
pin died in a drunken spree in 1852 and was buried on 
a hill on the plantation near his residence. That he 
knew well where the grave was, and had seen it often. 
Mr. Charleville further stated that it was his opinion 
that Mrs. Stowe was at Robert McAlpin's house in 
1850 or '51. Anyway, he says that there was a lady 
there at the time and accounts for Mrs. Stowe's accu- 



14 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 

rate description of the place in this way. That if she 
was not personally present and an eye-witness of some 
of these things, that the lady who was there furnished 
her with a full description of the house, etc. This latter 
portion of his surmise as to its being another woman is 
most likely to be a correct one, for it would be a great 
strain for us to imagine for a moment that a lady of 
Mrs. Stowe's refined feelings and ladylike culture would 
have ever taken refuge or shelter at all under the roof 
of such a man as Robert McAlpin, alias "Simon Le- 
gree." 

Havingnowbecome thoroughly convinced of the fact 
that the locality of the "cabin" and plantation was 
correctly fixed in the lower part of the parish, I desisted 
from further inquiries in that direction, and retraced 
my way to my boarding-house, where, seated upon one 
of the old style Southern porticoes, I spent the re- 
mainder of the day in company with the landlady, who 
proved to be a lady of large experience, broad and 
comprehensive views and a liberal conception. She, 
too, had read "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and she, like my- 
self, had admired the gentle Christian spirit that had 
prompted its authoress while penning its pages. She 
was somewhat my senior in years, yet, like myself, she 
had been born and raised in the South upon a slave 
plantation. Twice she had been married and twice in 
succession become the mistress of large slave planta- 
tions, operated in the olden way by cruel owners and 
the lash. In both of which instances she had claimed 
supremacy, and forced under the muzzle of her pistol 
an observance of the rules of mercy. Having been 
born and raised in South Carolina, from which she im- 
migrated in 1856 to Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, 
where she has resided ever since, her entire life has 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN 1 5 

been encompassed by "slave traffic" and the customs 
of a slave country. 

Yet through it all and under it all she never lost 
sight of her dear Redeemer; she is glad that the negro 
is freed; she hopes and believes that they will ever re- 
main so, a sentiment now general in the South. 

How pleasant it is, dear sister, in our life's wander- 
ings to meet now and then one of Christ's children, 
whose whole life is a strong mirror reflecting the beau- 
ties and mercies of Christianity. It is a fact, that there 
is a comfort found and a solace felt whenever or wher- 
ever Christ's children come together and talk freely, 
face to face with each other, that is never felt on other 
occasions. So it was in this. 

On the following morning, boarding the train at 
Natchitoches, we soon found ourselves once more rap- 
idly speeding away through Cypress swamps all matted 
and woven together with dense undergrown thickets 
of twisting ratan. Reaching the station of Cypress 
on the main line of the Texas & Pacific road on time, 
we were, after a short delay, transferred to the down 
train of that road, and again soon found ourselves 
under full headway to our ultimate destination. 

Next we arrived at the little town of Dairy, where 
we were joined by Mr. Chopin, the owner of the 
"cabin," and his little daughter Eugenie, a beautiful 
girl of thirteen, an only child and a father's idol. No 
sooner were we seated than she began talking to me 
and said, "I am so glad you came. I have been wanting 
to go down home so long and papa just would not go 
with me. He has just been promising me that we will 
go to-morrow and to-morrow for so long." 

"I should have thought, Eugenie, that you would 
have preferred to live in town and not care to go back 



I6 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOm's CABIN 

to the old home so quick. How long since you were 
there?" 

"Why," said she, "I have not been there for nearly 
two months, and it is such a long time, and I know they 
all miss me so much. When I left Aunt Maria cried 
and said she knew something would happen, and all 
her children cried, and I cried myself. They were 
such good negroes; they were always kind to mother 
and to me. I taught some of them to spell in their 
books and to read in the Bible, and I know that they 
will be so glad to see me when we get there. I wish 
we were there now." 

By this time I had gotten my eyes fairly fixed on 
the child, who, with her long golden hair hanging so 
profusely around her neck and waving so gracefully as 
she turned her head to right and left in emphasizing 
her words, that I plainly saw before me the little "Eva" 
of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Never did child slip in upon 
me in such unsuspecting way, and so completely fill in 
form, figure and speech my ideal of one of whom I had 
only read. I saw Eva's form and figure, I heard her 
spirit and speech. 

We soon arrived at Chopin, our place of disembark- 
ation, and stepping out upon the platform, something 
like a dozen husky, dry voices sung out at once: "Why 
bless my life, if dar ain't Miss Genie," and crowding 
around shook hands with her and took on so; and then 
the depot agent and the clerks from her father's store, 
in fact everybody rushed to meet Eugenie. One could 
see in a moment that though she was only a child she 
was the queen of that valley. 

We did not halt long, however, but proceeded on 
our intended tour, and soon came in full view of 
"Uncle Tom's Cabin." 



, A VISIT TO UNCLE TOm's CABIN I7 

As we approached it I could not help feeling a pro- 
found and deep reverence for both the place and the 
"cabin." In fact, it seemed to me as if I were treading 
upon sacred ground, and when halting in front of the 
house, I must admit, that the feeling that crept over 
me was akin to that feeling which would have come 
over me, had I been approaching the tomb of some 
patriarch of old. It was the last earthly home and 




UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 

place of "Tom," the chosen instrument of Almighty 
God for showing to this world the evil of one man en- 
slaving another. It always did seem to me, but when 
confronting the "cabin," I felt as if I knew that Tom's 
entire life and death had been so ordained from on 
high for the ultimate good of his people. That it has 
been used in that way no one can doubt who is familiar 
with his history. Our nation of people were playing 

total indifference to the evil of slavery, notwithstand- 
2 



l8 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN 

ing the fact that that evil was creeping and crawling 
into all kinds of high and conspicuous places. 

Notwithstanding the further fact, that our ablest 
and most profound statesmen were crying out at the 
top of their voices, warning the nation of the evil into 
which it was drifting, and begging them to desist from 
so dangerous a course. Yet with strange methodi- 
cality onward they marched, so reckless, so unmind- 
ful, so forgetful, so indifferent did the people seem 
that it bordered upon national oblivion. 

I say that it does seem that this particular man 
"Tom" had been selected as the means by which and 
through which his people were to become liberated 
and freed from their bondage. Why do I say this? 
Let us see. Slavery was no worse at the time of his 
death than it was fifty years before. The slave was 
not treated" any worse at the time of his death than 
they were at any given period of time during their 
entire bondage in the United States, and they were held 
in all, in bondage in the United States, 216 years. He 
was not the first slave that had been put upon a block 
and sold to a nigger trader for the highest bid, and 
then hand-cuffed and forced away from children, wife 
and all that could be near or dear to him forever. He 
was not the first or only slave that was ever tied and 
whipped to death in the country. Such incidents and 
events as these were almost daily occurrences in some 
part of the United States and had been for over 200 
years. Yet the people at the North and the opponents 
of slavery did neither stop nor offer to stop it. But 
when "Uncle Tom" came to his death there was a mur- 
mur begun that widened and deepened and spread all 
through and through this nation. Nor did it stop there, 
for the historian in speaking of it says that, "The story 



A VISTT TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN IQ 

of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' has no parallel in the literature of 
any age. That in a short time there was nearly half a 
million copies sold in this country and a considerably 
larger number in England. It was translated into every 
language in Europe and into Arabic and Armenian. 
It was dramatized and acted in nearly every theater in 
the world." Chosen means by the same God by which 
that work should be done. 

The combined nations of the world at once daunt- 
ingly arrayed themselves in opposition to slavery. 
The fight began and was waged in the United States, 
and ere the battle clash ceased to resound, the sha*dk- 
les that had bound the negro of America so long were 
broken; nor did the work stop here. All Europe freed 
all of its slaves; the South Sea Islands likewise began 
the work of liberating their slaves, and practically 
speaking, at one fell stroke the slaves of the world were 
liberated. 

We are told that Moses was chosen as the means by 
which the children of Israel should be liberated from 
their bondage, after having served their cruel masters 
for 430 years. That after that was done he died and 
was buried. "But no man knoweth of his sepulcher 
until this day." Likewise we are told by the historian 
of Tom that "there is no monument to mark the last 
resting-place of our friend; he needs none. His Lord 
knows where he lies, and will raise him up immortal to 
appear with Him when He shall appear in His glory." 

Add to this the soul-stirring strains of that familiar 
song, "God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to 
perform," and you will have all of the lenses through 
which I have looked to be convinced that Tom was made 
the chosen means for the liberation of his brethren, and 
that through him the colored slaves of the world have, 



20 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 

like the children of Israel through Moses, been led to 
their respective happy lands of Canaan. Freedom in 
thought, freedom in utterance, freedom in action; 
hence my feeling a profound reverence for the place 
where these divine manifestations have been so plainly 
and impressively wrought. 

Approaching the door of the cabin, we noticed that 
it was securely fastened with hasp and staple, made 
in the olden times by hand. Lifting the lock from its 
hold, we slowly swung back the shutter upon rudely 
hand-made hinges that had held it in place since 1825. 
We entered — all was still; the black, smoked logs with 
here and there a two-inch auger hole bored into their 
inside face into which pins or pegs were once used as 
supports for shelves, were plainly visible. From 
these it could be seen that a number of these shelves 
once ranged around the room I looked and wondered 
which one of these "Tom" kept his Bible on. But 
which one it was, I could not tell. Yet, that it was one 
of this number there is no mistake. 

We next cast an upward glance at the roof which 
appeared to be in good shape, when we consider its 
great age, though it was plainly visible that at places 
it did " let in the sunshine and the rain;' and while gaz- 
ing through these apertures at the blue sky beyond, we 
wondered if the spirit of ''Tom," still accompanied by 
that of the gentle "Eva" did not at times gaze down 
through them upon the hard bed he once occupied 
there — thinking that possibly it might be so At least 

" It is a beautiful belief, 

That ever round our head 
Are hovering, on angel wings, 

The spirits of the dead." 

The floor was perfectly sound and all in place, save 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 21 

three or four planks that were missing from the south 
side of the room. This vacancy extended clear across, 
exposing the joist below, which appeared to have been 
sawed. The opening in the end wall for the fire-place 
was all perfectly intact, the chimney having been re- 
moved many years ago, there being only a few bricks 
left scattered around over the hearth-site. 

Oh, thought I, could a phonograph of modern build 
have been placed within this room when these walls 
were first erected, and have recorded the successive 
silence and sounds that have prevailed and broken forth 
here in the wretched ages that have passed and gone 
since they were first reared, what a tale it could now 
tell, of sighs and sobs and sorrows; of prayers and pit- 
iful pleadings. But we will not trace this theme further; 
for if it were so we might hear, reproduced, sobbing 
sounds of a " mother as she kissed her baby — gave it 
laudanum — held it to her bosom while it breathed its 
young life away," rather than see it grow up and follow 
in the miserable and wretched footsteps of her degra- 
dation; and I would not now, for all the world's present 
wealth, have these repeated. 

Noticing that the entire house was built of heart 
cypress, the most durable of all woods, and that the 
clapboards with which it had been covered were hand- 
riven, and of the same material and nailed on with 
hand-made nails, we began to feel that we were in pos- 
session of all the knowledge we were seeking, and that 
we were now ready for our departure. So passing out 
through the doorway we closed and clasped its shutter 
and then departed from the place. Near by stands the 
old overseer's house, built about the same time, though 
not occupied during Legree's life by a white overseer. 
His negro drivers, "Sambo" and "Quimbo," evidently 



22 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 

resided there during the time they acted in that capac- 
ity. And afterward it was occupied by Legrdb's suc- 
cessors, successively ever since up to the late war. It 
is now occupied by an intelligent colored man and his 
family. It is a part of this man's daily business to 
watch and protect the "cabin" against the raids of relic 
hunters. And he told me that between the combined 
effort of himself and wife, his children and his dog, that 
he had succeeded wonderfully well. 

We will next notice a small brick building standing 
between the " cabin" and Legree's residence, but near 
the latter. This building has a shed in front of it and 
was the kitchen built there at the time the other build- 
ings were erected. From some unknown cause the public 
has for the last fifteen years understood that this house 
was ''Uncle Tom's Cabin," and in consequence of this 
understanding they have pretty well pulled down and 
carried the shed away as relics of it. 

Mr. Chopin informed me that if the traveling public 
knew which was the "cabin," there would soon be none 
of it left. Said he: "J^-y Gould and daughters passed 
here recently, and stopping their train, got out and 
went to pulling and pounding away on the old kitchen 
until each of them got a clapboard, splinter, brickbat 
or something else to carry away with them as relics. 
And the railway men generally stop their excursion 
trains here, and after showing up the place every one 
sails in for a piece to carry homie with him; and, seeing 
the danger that the "cabin" was in, I decided not to 
correct the mistake. Why, there are pieces of that 
kitchen now scattered all over Europe." 

This building having been originally built about 
twenty steps from Legree's residence and facing directly 
to it, makes it now front both it and the railroad, since 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 



23 



the latter passes between the two. We, therefore, have 
to cross over the railroad before getting to the resi- 
dence, and as we do so, halt upon the track and notice 
the fact that the residence is, and always was, the only 
building of all the buildings ever built upon the plan- 
tation, that stands on that side of the railroad track, 
leaving all the negro cabins as they then stood, or by 
any subsequent arrangement, on the opposite side of it. 




RAILROAD CUT IN HILL. 



Immediately on passing the residence, one exten- 
sion of which had to be torn away to make room for 
the road, the railroad enters a deep cut through a high 
hill that jets up to where that portion of the house 
stood which was removed. Not missing the corner of 
that portion standing there to-day more than five feet. 
The hill instead of being tunneled was cut down, leav- 
ing the banks fifty-two feet high, to stand there, an 
immovable landmark through all the centuries to come. 
The great enterprise of surveying and building this 



24 



A VISIT TO UNCLK TOM S CABIN 



railway having been both begun and ccmplctcd since 
the death of Legrce, and so plainly sei)arating his resi- 
dence forever by an immovat)le line from all the negro 
and other cabins and houses on the place, forcibly im- 
pressed me as being symbolical of another line now 
drawn and of far greater indestructibility between his 
present abode and that of the poor negroes he had 
once so cruelly tortured there. 



■*M 






'17 










SOUTH END VIEW OF LEGREE'S HOUSE. 

And as 1 was thus musing there came a deep and 
fearful noise, and next a train came thundering through 
the cut, with its engine popping and spitting and vom- 
iting great black clouds of smoke, intermixed with 
steam and fire, and thundered by with great terror, as 
though it was some great death-angel authoritatively 
traveling the boundary line on the outer borders of the 
respective spirit lands in the great beyond, proclaiming 
in thunder tones, as he passed: "No crossing! No 
crossing this line." The coincidence of the train's 
approach so quickly succeeding my first meditations 



A visrr ro unci.k Tcm s (^arin 



25 



of the line beintif drawn, caused mc to sluiddorinoly say 
unto myself: Can it be that these are truly symbol ical 
of the man's present spiritual condition? 

There we stood gazing upon the Legree residence 
that was plainly marked by the ravages of time. It 
stands upon a small plat of level ground about 60 yards 
from the river bank, and is completely cut off and sur- 
rounded on all sides. The hill just south of it fills all 
the space between the river and the railroad. The river 






.<*<r^o> 














TRAIN PASSING LEGREE's RESIDENCE. 

on the east, the bayou on the north, and the railroad 
on the west completes the circuit. Lonely, lonely si)ot, 
thought I, now held and used as a section house by 
the* railroad, occupied and tenanted alone by negroes. 
There it stood precisely as it did in the olden time, 
upon its brick foundation, w^ith its "two-story veranda 
running all around it and supported at its outer aire 
with tall brick pillars." In front of it lies the yard that 



2^ 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 



has undergone the changes mentioned in "Uncle Tom's 
Cabin." The ''noble avenue of China-trees, whose grace- 
ful forms and ever springing foliage seemed to be the 
only things there that neglect could not daunt or alter 
— ^like noble spirits, so deeply rooted in goodness as to 
flourish and grow stronger amid discouragement and 
decay," still stand there with an occasional vacancy in 
their rows. But the survivors clearly show to this day 
that the above beautiful tribute was worthily bestowed. 




FRONT VIEW OF LEGREE S RESIDENCE. 

Yes, they were deeply rooted in goodness, that good- 
ness which God gave to all the world alike, but which 
has been and is yet so oft and so woefully perverted. 

These trees have grown until they now have large 
trunks ranging in size from two to three feet in diame- 
ter; and while they give evidence of decay, if properly 
looked after and protected from fire their ''graceful fo- 
liage" will enable the historians to unmistakably locate 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 



27 



the tragically historic spot in the year 2000. They are 
trees of great longevity of life. I only hope that they 
may stand long, "waving their graceful boughs" merely 
to designate the spot that must ever be of great historic 
interest to the American negro, and that they will never 
more shade him as a manacled and fettered slave. 

The "once large garden" where "some solitary ex- 
otic once reared its forsaken head," could now only be 




END OF RESIDENCE SHOWING GARRET WINDOW. 

located by an occasional cluster of fig bushes, whose 
parent stem had once stood in the fence corner of the 
"garden." As we looked across its abandoned and 
forsaken waste, the story of the bloody Nero's once 
burning human bodies alive as waxen ends to light his 
way in his drunken walks at night in his garden, re- 
curred to us. Likewise did these words recur to us: 
"How would you like to be tied to a tree, and have a 
slow fire lit up around it; wouldn't that be pleasant — 



28 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN 

eh, Tom?" And we wondered to ourselves if such 
threats had ever been carried into execution in the 
"garden," or other similar offenses, such as sewing up 
a negro in a sack preparatory to drowning him in the 
river, and the like. To such inquiries, however, there 
can be but one general answer, and that is that, as a 
rule, men of Legree's cast and character, with abso- 
lutely nothing to restrain them, will execute any threat 
they may make. 

Casting our eyes around we next spied, high up in 
the gable at the north end of the house, a small win- 
dow which evidently opened into that garret in which 
Cassey and Emeline found a safe seclusion, and from 
which they ultimately made their escape from their 
demonized master. We had no inclination to go up in 
the garret, for it was ours in boyhood to know a man 
who used the garret of his residence as a place to tor- 
ture his negroes in by whipping and tying them up by 
their thumbs and locking them up in it for days and 
nights without food or drink. 

In that country, at that time, there were no steam 
mills and consequently the grinding of all our grain 
was done on old-fashioned grist water-mills; and it was 
the custom of the people to send their grain to mill on a 
horse by a boy, and to send him early in the morning 
so as for him to get there first that he might get his 
grinding done before the headway of water, that had 
accumulated the previous night in the mill-pond, gave 
out. 

Upon one occasion I was sent in this way early in 
the morning to mill in company with an older brother, 
and the road we had to travel lay right by this man's 
house who was so cruel to his negroes; and as we 
were passing by we noticed old Uncle Jerry, an old 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 29 

negro belonging to this man, lying by the side of an 
ash-hopper that stood out in front of the yard, and he 
was dead, A little further on we met another negro 
who had been out after the horses, and we, knowing 
that he belonged on the same place, asked him what 
caused Uncle Jerry's death, and how came him to be 
lying out there by that ash-hopper; and he said, "Mars 
comed home last night en he was awful drunk, en he 
got mad with Uncle Jerry 'bout something, en he tuck 
him up in the garret en beat him so much when he 
come down he went out there en laid down and died." 

I was then very young and a small boy; in fact, 
both so young and small that it was the first time that I 
had ever gone to mill, or been permitted to ride a horse 
so far by myself. And had been planning in my mind 
what I would tell my mother when I got back about 
how manly I had rode and did not let my sack fall off. 
I had planned further that if it all went well with me 
in going, that on my return I would trot my horse a little, 
just in order to run my cup over with glorious achieve- 
ments in horsemanship. But the scene of that morn- 
ing so frightened me that I lost sight of all this and 
cried, and when I got to the mill, the miller, who was 
a good man, came out and made much of me and said 
that I was the smallest boy he had ever seen come to 
mill, and that I rode well, and all that kind of talk. 
But I could not talk to him; my feelings were so badly 
torn up that I tried to speak and commenced to cry 
again, whereupon he asked my brother what was the 
matter, and when he told him, though he was a good 
man, how he did cuss! 

We soon got our grinding done and carried it home; 
and when we got there we rode up behind the kitchen, 
and Aunt Martha, a colored woman belonging to my 



30 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN 

father, came out to help us down, and no sooner did 
she see me than she began: "Lores me, what de matter 
wid dis here chile; he's been crying." Just then my 
mother appeared upon the scene, and before she could 
speak a word of praise to me for my success she caught 
on to my brother, narrating to Aunt Martha what we 
had seen. I can see that smile on her face yet as it 
quickly changed into a sour contempt of what she 
heard, and she spoke quickly and said that she "wished 
every nigger in America was set free." 

After becoming somewhat composed, I told my 
mother and father as best I could all about it, and 
how it had frightened me and how I tried to get my 
brother to turn around and come back and he would 
not do it, and how afraid I was of that man who killed 
the negro, and finally brought this childish conversa- 
tion to a close by asking them to never send me to 
mill again by that man's house. They promised me 
that they would not, and they never did. My father 
partially consoled my feelings by saying further "that 
there ought to be something done with that man," but 
that was all. 

From that day to this the name of "garret" to me 
has both an unpleasant sound and sight. Hence, I 
did not care to go up into that one where Cassey and 
Emeline had concealed themselves preparatory to their 
subsequent flight from bondage. 

Having now seen about all there was to be seen, 
that would be of interest to us among the remaining 
buildings still standing upon the old plantation, we 
decided to go one step further and see the spot where 
that man who played such an active part upon the thea- 
ters of the world for nearly the last half century was 
laid, when they laid him out of the light of this life. 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 31 

In order to do so, v\'e have to ascend that portion of 
the hill just south of the residence that lies between 
the railroad and the river. At the mention of going 
to the grave of Legree, we noticed a ripple of indiffer- 
ence mingled with scorn as it flashed over the face of 
our little heroine, Eugenie. Up to this point she had 
led the way and manifested great interest in point- 
ing out her little play houses at and around the resi- 
dence of Legree, and told us how she used to go to 
Uncle Tom's cabin and play of evenings, and seemed 
to be delighted to show and explain all to us. But on 
the mention of the grave she spoke quickly and said: 
"Why, there is nothing up there but his grave, and 
who wants to see that? I don't and I don't intend to 
either;" and accompanying her words with an affirma- 
tive nod of her head, gracefully declined to follow us 
up the hill, but said she would wait and go with us out 
to the church when we came back. 

We slowly climbed up the hill' to where its top 
takes a ridge shape and is covered with tall trees, from 
every branch and limb of which hangs in great pro- 
fusion long tapering bunches of greenish looking 
moss, about one hundred yards, to where the ridge 
widens out a little, and we came to the grave of Robert 
McAlpin, alias "Simon Legree." His remains lie 
there beneath a brick tomb, that was originally built 
to the average height, but which has by long neglect 
and exposure been reduced until it does not now 
stand more than a foot above the level. Around it 
and covering nearly the entire little flat mentioned 
are a number of other graves. These, we were told, 
were all the graves of negroes, many of whom he had 
cruelly put to death in his lifetime, he being the only 
white person buried there. 



32 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 



We stood and gazed in silence over the stillness 
that lay before us, and remembering that somebody 
had said, "Oh, the grave! the grave! It buries every 
error, covers every defect, extinguishes every resent- 
ment. From its peaceful bosom springs none but 
fond regret and tender recollections." Beautiful 
words, thought I, beautifully portraying a Christian 
spirit. But, thought I further, how much of this was 
applicable to the mound now rising before me? How 










GRAVE OF ROBERT MCALPIN, ALIAS SIMON LEGREE. 

much "fond regret" had ever been felt over his death? 
How many "tender recollections" of him had any one 
ever cherished for one moment for any good thing he 
had ever done or said? And the continued silence 
negatively answered, not one, not one. 

Again we turned through the ever written leaves of 
recollection, and again we read, "The evil that men do 
lives after them. The good is oft interred with their 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 33 

bones." Yes, it is true; the evil that this man did lived 
after him, playing a prominent part in plunging a nation 
into war, slaughtering hundreds of thousands, of men 
and wrecking millions more. True literally true; but 
the latter part of the sentence, "the good is oft interred 
with their bones." How is this? We have just said 
that if he ever said or did a good thing, there is no 
written or traditional evidence of it. It would, there- 
fore, be a monstrous revolution of all written rules for 
us to suppose that any good was ever buried with him 
here. We felt perplexed. It was the first time in our 
entire life that we had appeared for or against a man 
or even over his grave, and could not in the whole 
vocabulary of our existence find a single palliating sen- 
tence to pronounce in his behalf. However, finally and 
without effort on our part, we decided that he had done 
well when he got out of this world, and no sooner did 
the thought suggest itself than we placed it to his 
credit, and turned and left the loneliest looking of all 
the lonesome places we have ever seen. 

Retracing our steps, we soon got back down the hill 
to the residence where we left Eugenie and found her 
mounted upon the high steps, on the east front of the 
house, with some dozen or more negro children all 
around her with their eyes and mouths wide open, lis- 
tening to what "Miss Genie" had to say. And she, like a 
little queen, was authoritatively asking this one and that 
one if they had kept up their studies in their books, 
and if they minded their mothers, and when was the 
preacher there last, and did they go to church and hear 
him, etc. To all of which there seemed to be a com- 
mon response of "Yesum." 

After getting a drink of water and resting a few 
moments, we decided to move on and see the little 



34 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 



church that Eugenie spoke of; and as we moved off 
there came a shout of ''Good-bye, Miss Genie; come 
again fo' long," the which she promised to do. Walk- 
ing along the railroad track we soon came to the trestle 
bridge spanning the deep dark gulch, which passes 
from a swamp into the river, down into which Cassey 
and Emeline plunged on the night they passed "along 
by the quarters" when "a voice called to them," and 




CHURCH. 

turning back in this gulch, passed by their pursuers 
unnoticed to the house and concealed themselves in the 
"garret." 

The deep gulch passes from this swamp close to the 
quarters, thence near the house of Legree, and thence 
to the river. Its position upon the ground, and its 
relation to both quarters and residence, is conclusive 
proof that the authoress of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" either 
viewed it once in person, or else got her information 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOm's CABIN 35 

from one who had made a careful survey of it. After 
crossing over the bridge we turned up the gulch on the 
opposite side from where the "cabin" stands, about a 
hundred and fifty yards, to the little church. As we 
approached it, Eugenie commenced again: "Now, 
just see that little church; well, my papa gave a lease 
to the ground for this church for ninety-nine years for 
five cents a year, and he built the church for them 
besides, and it is so nice. I love to come here to 
church and see and hear the negroes shout. You see 
they are all Methodists, and they do shout and carry 
on so! I am so glad to see them have a church right 
here so close to 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.' Old Legree 
would not let his negroes have any church or books 
either. I hate to read about that man, he was so fear- 
fully cruel." 

We assented to all our sweet Eugenie said, and as 
she drifted into silence we could not help feeling and 
even repeating to ourselves: O, Christ, it is finished! 
Dear Saviour, in Thy name it is finished. Here in this 
once lonely vale among the "lowly," where the bare 
mention of Thy name or the expose even late at night 
of Thy Holy Book, by the dimly-flickering rays of a 
dying cabin fire, was sure to meet with severest rebukes 
and rebuffs. We now see, lifting its humble head 
above the ruins of time, a church, reared and dedicated 
to Thee, where the "lowly" in an humble and becom- 
ing way daily worship their Creator. Here, too, upon 
this historic spot, so graphically outlined as the once 
isolated and far away place, where human cruelties and 
tortures equaled the most barbaric practices of ancient 
time, we to-day see palace cars of the finest modern 
build, drawn by the mightiest and swiftest engines of 
earth as they halt; whilst their owners, railway kings 



36 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN 

of the world, walk out and gaze long and intently upon 
its ruins. And as their trains move on from the scene, 
loving sisters and friendly hands can be seen waving 
scarfs which seem to take up the spirit and re-echo 
the sentiment. Thank God! it is finished. Ay, be- 
yond this we wonder if that watchful convoy of angels 
that once broke the stillness of night on the plains 
of Galilee with singing their hozannas of joy, have 
not taken up the strain further on, and chantingly 
wafted them into the happy Canaan, far, far away. 

It was now growing late at evening, and our day's 
work being finished, we turned our steps toward the 
depot, where, after a short rest, our train hove in sight 
and pulling up at the place, we boarded it again for 
our home in Texas. At the next station. Dairy, we 
bade farewell to Mr. Chopin and our gentle Eugenie, 
and as we shook her little hand, felt that we would one 
day meet her again in '*a land fairer than this." 

Being now thoroughly satisfied as to the identity of 
the plantation as that of the Legree of Mrs. Stowe's 
narrative of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," I closed a trade 
with Mr. Chopin by which he gave me a lease on the 
cabin for the purposes of exhibiting it at the World's 
Fair at Chicago, and such other places as I might deem 
fit to exhibit it afterward. And shortly afterward I 
went to Chicago, where, after some time, I contracted 
with the Libby Prison War Museum Association for its 
exhibition upon their ground in that city. 

Following this I soon returned to the old planta- 
tion in Louisiana after the cabin, and on the first day 
of December, 1892, at noon, we began the work of tak- 
ing it down, with five negro men whom I had hired to 
help me do the work. One of these men was a car- 
penter, and had been living on the plantation since 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN 37 

1867. After the cabin was taken down, these negro 
men asked me if I did not think it proper for the spot 
to be marked in some way by which the exact locality 
would not be forgotten. They talked sensibly about it, 
too, and said that as long as the cabin was standmg 
there, they could show it to the rising generation with 
exact precision. But now that it was gone, they felt 
that the spot would soon be tilled as the balance of the 
field, and the place soon be entirely forgotten. 

At the time, I promised the men that I would do what 
I could to keep the place green in the minds of the negro 
race, and after due deliberation upon the matter, and 
further, after advising with a number of ladies in Abilene, 
and Fort Worth, Texas, and in St. I^ouis and Chicago, 
as to the most feasible plan to do this, have been by 
them advised to keep a contribution box in the cabin 
during its exhibition; the deposits of which are to go 
toward building an academy of learning on the exact 
spot from which the cabin was taken. 

Considering this advice good and the plan a feasi- 
ble one, I have decided to keep in the cabin a box, 
into which visitors will be allowed and even solicited 
to put whatever they may feel disposed to, for this 
purpose. A very small contribution from each one 
will in a few years create a fund sufficient, no doubt, 
for this purpose. 

Rev. W. E. Penn, of Eureka Springs, Ark., once 
built a church at Palestine, Texas, that cost ^40,000, 
and he done it with nickle contributions. And I think 
that a similar contribution on the part of the visitors 
to this historic house will soon create a sufficient fund 
to build a house for them that will be both a credit to 
the givers and a pleasure and profit to the poor 
negroes. Let us try it. It ought to be done. 



58 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN 

It was upon this return trip after the cabin, that I 
learned that during the late war there had been a 
battle fought upon the Legree plantation. H. H. 
Russell, who now owns a large saw mill upon the 
plantation, was at the time of this battle stationed at 
Monette's Ferry on Red river, about two miles away. 
He belonged at the time to Company D, Fourth Texas 
Cavalry. The fight lasted only an hour or two, and 
was one of those fierce artillery duels which frequent- 
ly occurred when both armies were on the move. 
The batteries of the respective forces. Federal and 
Confederate, occupied two hilltops about three- 
quarters of a mile apart, with Uncle Tom's cabin in 
the valley between. This caused a shower of shell and 
shot to fall all around it. To this day they occasion- 
ally plow up a shell near it. In taking the building 
down, we found a piece of the contents of a shell 
which had exploded over the cabin, sticking in one of 
the moss-covered boards. This I brought along, to- 
gether with a number of shells and parts of shells that 
the negroes had picked up around the building in after 
years. These will be kept on exhibition during the 
time in the cabin, whenever it may be exhibited. 

During this engagement there was one Confederate 
soldier killed near the cabin, just in the edge of the 
little field that now surrounds it. His name was O. J. 
Polly. He was from Orange, Texas. On the other 
side and around the cabin a number of Federal soldiers 
were killed. These were picked up after the battle 
and buried under a tall pecan tree about a quarter of .a 
mile from the cabin and south of it. They were sub- 
sequently removed, when the Federal dead were col- 
lected into the various national burying grounds. The 
spot, however, where they were first buried upon the 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN 39 

Legree plantation is clearly and plainly marked by a 
tall pecan tree, that still stands with a sentinel-like 
appearance, as though it was keeping watch over the 
spot. There was, however, one of the Federal dead 
left upon the place. He was wounded in the battle 
and left in a cotton-gin, where he afterward died, and 
was buried by citizens under a large and ancient fig 
tree, about one hundred yards from the residence of 
Simon Legree, where his remains still repose. As I 
stood by his grave I could not help but think that pos- 
sibly, in his early youth, he had seen the play of "Uncle 
Tom's Cabin" rendered upon the theaters of the 
North; and possibly been induced thereby to rush 
quickly into the action when the welkin of war rang. 
If this was so with himself or the others who died 
there around that cabin, is it not a strange meditation 
for us to muse upon now, that he should subsequently 
die in the very shadow of the cabin, where his dying 
groans would echo and re-echo as they faded away, 
from wall to wall of that historic house, that in the 
dreams of his youth he had often visited? And what 
may seem stranger still, the fact that he was laid to 
rest at last beneath the shadows of a fig tree, that was 
most likely planted by the hand of Simon Legree. 

Just then there came a puff of wind from the south, 
and in passing the grave of Simon Legree it rattled the 
dry fallen forest leaves around and over it, and pass- 
ing onward next dolefully mourned through the open 
doors and paneless windows of his moss-covered resi- 
dence. Thence it swept along over the soldiers' lonely 
grave, where it seemed to rearrange the dry and fall- 
ing grasses of that little mound. 

Amid this historic scene and commotion of autumn 
winds and leaves, we could not help thinking of the 



40 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 

rapid mutations of time, and thought we could see 
all these leveled in the dust of the future. But we 
could not see to where mention of them would be 
obliterated from history's pages. 

The cabin is now on exhibition in the enclosure of 
the Libby Prison War Museum on Wabash avenue, 
Chicago, 111. In visiting the city don't fail to come 
and see this world-renowned house, and when there, by 
no means fail to purchase a souvenir for the dear ones 
at home. We have a great variety of walking sticks, 
beautiful ratan, that grew upon the plantation, and cot- 
ton balls from the plantation, done up in nice boxes 
with a clear cut picture of the cabin on the box. Also 
a number of finely executed photographs, taken en the 
place, showing everything from the residence of Legree 
to his grave. A full set of these would be so instruct- 
ive to one's family that you cannot afford to return 
home without them. They are made both ways, so you 
can take stereoscopic or cabinet views. 

There will also be on exhibition in the cabin, a fine 
picture of Simon Legree. This has been kept by a 
lady living in the parish ever since before his death. 

P. S. — Since writing the above, I have received the 
following letter from Rev. Charles Beecher. He is that 
brother referred to by Mrs. Stowe as being in New 
Orleans at the time, and from whom she derived the 
information concerning the character of Legree. The 
letter was written to me in response to one I had writ- 
ten him shortly before. In order to assist you in under- 
standing what we were writing about, let me say that 
Natchitoches is fifty-two miles above Alexandria, on 
Red river. The Legree plantation is thirty miles 
above Alexandria and all on the west side or same side 
of the river. This puts the plantation just thirty miles 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN 4I 

above Alexandria and twenty-two miles below Natchi- 
toches. Further, I would ask you to compare this let- 
ter of his with what she says of him in that chapter of 
her book entitled, "Concluding Remarks." Do this 
and you will catch the full import and meaning of his 
letter. 

"Wysox, Pa., Nov. 29, 1892. 
" Mr. D. B. CoRLEY. 
" Dear Sir: 
**It must have been some time in 1837 or '8, that I 
visited Alexandria and Natchitoches. I remember inci- 
dents, but not names or dates. I cannot remember 
where the plantation was, nor the name of its owner, 
which gave my sister a hint for the character of Legree. 
I have no records of any kind of that Red river trip, 
and do not recognize the name you mention. 

" Respectfully, 

" Charles Beecher." 

TESTIMONIALS. 

State of Louisiana, ) 
Parish of Natchitoches. \ 

My name is L. Chopin. I am forty-two years old 
and was born and raised in Natchitoches Parish, 
Louisiana. In the year 1852 my father bought at pub- 
lic sale the Robert McAlpin plantation, situated on 
Red river in the southern portion of the parish, and 
moved upon the place shortly afterward. The oc- 
casion of the plantation being sold was on account of 
McAlpin's death. He being a bachelor the estate was 
wound up and the proceeds distributed among distant 
relatives. 

Outside of a few years spent in Europe at school, I 
have lived on the plantation all my life, and until the 



42 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 

Texas and Pacific railroad run through the place I 
lived in the old McAlpin residence. A portion of the 
old residence was torn down by the railroad, and the 
roadbed now runs through it, the balance of the build- 
ing being used as a section house. 

When my father first moved on the place, or at least 
a few years afterward, he had one of the two rows of 
China trees in front of the house cut down because it 
obstructed the view and made too much of shade. I 
still remember, although a child at the time, the great 
time we children had helping the negroes pull on the 
ropes which were fastened to the tops of the trees be- 
ing cut down to prevent them from falling over and 
damaging those that were to be kept. 

After the war my father commenced tearing down 
the cabins from the negro quarters and scattering them 
over the plantation, as the negroes objected to living 
in the old "quarters." It "looked too much like slavery," 
so they said. 

After I assumed the control of the place at my 
father's death, I continued tearing down and moving 
the cabins, and there is now standing on the grounds 
where the negro quarters were located only the cabin 
known as Uncle Tom's cabin. This I never moved, 
and have religiously kept ever since on account of the 
tradition connected with it, which makes it the cabin 
that "Uncle Tom" occupied on the Legree plantation. 

Tradition has it that McAlpin was the Legree of 
Mrs. Stowe's book. From all reports of white and black 
he was a very cruel master to his slaves, and when 
drunk would abuse them dreadfully and is said to have 
caused the death of several of them. He was a very 
hard drinker and died from the effects of drink. He 
was buried on a little hill near the residence, and his 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN 4$ 

grave can still be seen there, although very much di- 
lapidated. His is the only white man's grave there; 
the place has always and is still used as a plantation 
burial ground, and quite a number of negroes are buried 
around his grave. 

When quite young I knew the place as the Legree 
plantation and the cabin as Uncle Tom's, and it is well 
known as "Uncle Tom's" cabin and believed to be so, 
not only here, but all over the country, as I have at 
several times received letters from the different states 
asking for pieces of boards from the cabin to be kept 
as relics. 

For years I have kept the cabin just for the sake of 
its association with Mrs. Stowe's book, without any 
thought of its ever being of any money value and with- 
out a thought of its ever being moved from the plan- 
tation, but lately I have been approached by parties 
from Chicago and New York who have offered to buy 
the cabin with the view of bringing it to the World's 
Fair at Chicago. Those offers I refused, and refused 
at first to entertain any idea of its being moved from 
the place even temporarily, but have finally consented 
to its being moved to Chicago for the World's Fair, 
after repeated representations were made me that such 
a cabin, so closely connected with such a well-known 
book as Uncle Tom's Cabin, was in a manner public 
property and the opportunity should be given to every- 
body to see it. 

L. Chopin. 

Sworn to and subscribed before me this 15th Oct., 1892. 
fsEAL ] Jno. a. Barlow, 

D. Clk. loth D. C. 

STATEMENT OF MRS. VALERY GAIENNIE. 

I knew Mr. Robert McAlpin very well. I used to 



44 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 

live on the Gaiennie plantation, about two miles from 
the McAlpin plantation. I often visited Mr. McAlpin 
at his house; he was very amiable to us, but I have 
always heard that he was very mean to his slaves. 
When I was young there was a lady from the North 
that visited Mr. McAlpin. She did not associate with 
us; did not care to know us it seemed, and being a 
Yankee we did not care to have anything to do with her 
either. I have heard that the lady was the one that 
wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin," but I don't know for certain 
that she is. My husband told me that the Uncle Tom of 
the "book" was the old Uncle Tom that used to work 
for McAlpin. I remember Uncle Tom very well. He 
used to cross me over the river when we used to go to 
McAlpin, and used to wait around the yard and table; 
he was a respectful and kind old man. I have always 
heard that Mr. McAlpin was very mean to him, but I do 
not know this of my own knowledge. I only heard 
my slaves say that Mr. McAlpin used to whip Uncle 
Tom and treat him very harshly. Uncle Tom always 
looked very sad, and I used to feel very sorry for him; 
the fact that we heard of Mr. McAlpin's cruelty to him 
made us pity him. I have always heard that most of 
McAlpin's cruelty was done when he was under the 
influence of liquor, and he had the reputation of being 
a great drunkard, but before ladies he was gentlemanly. 
I never saw any cruel act to his slaves. 

Mrs. Valery Gaiennie. 
Swcrn to and subscribed before me this Nov. 26th; 

•92. 

[seal.] H. M. Hyams, 

Clk. loth D. C, La. 

statement of JOHN SYLVESTRE. 

My name is John Sylvestre. I am eighty-seven years 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM*S CABIN 45 

old and I used to live at Monette's Ferry, two miles from 
McAlpin. I used to pick cotton for Mr. McAlpin; he 
was very cruel to his slaves, and when he was drunk he 
did not care what he did to his slaves, and used to beat 
them. Old Uncle Tom used to work about the yard 
and McAlpin was very cruel to him. 

John Sylvestre. 

Sworn to and subscribed before me this 26th day of 
November, 1892. 
[SEAL.] H. M. Hyahs, 

Clk. loth D. C, La. 

State of Louisiana, ) 
Parish of Natchitoches. S 

Before me, the undersigned authority, duly qualified, 
personally came and appeared Samuel Parson, who 
being by me sworn according to law, and who is also 
known to me as a reliable and truthful person and who 
deposes as follows: 

I am 78 years of age. I knew Robert McAlpin well. 
He lived on and owned the plantation which L. 
Chopin now owns, on Cane river in the parish. I have 
lived 57 years in this parish. I worked for some time 
on a place near McAlpin's. His neighbors all knew 
him as a man who was excessively cruel to his slaves. 
I remember whilst at work, and when he would pass, 
the men would all curse him as he passed on account 
of his cruelty to his slaves. It was commonly circula- 
ted and believed in the neighborhood that several of 
his slaves had died from abusive treatment received 
from him. The place I worked at was two miles from 
McAlpin's. It was generally known and believed in 
the neighborhood that Mrs. Stowe wrote her work 
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" whilst on a visit to McAlpin, and 
that McAlpin owned a slave Tom. 



46 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN 

I know there is a cabin on the place now owned by 
Chopin which has always been pointed out to me and 
has always been known as the cabin of Uncle Tom. 

I am getting old and my memory is not very good. 
I could relate different acts of cruelty by him to his 
slaves, but it has been so long I can't now recall them. 
I know he was a very cruel and severe master. McAl- 
pin is buried on the Chopin place, 

S. Parson. 
Sworn to and subscribed before me at Natchitoches, 
La., this 28th November, 1892. 

P -] Jno. a. Barlow, 

L^^^^-J Deputy Clerk. 

Natchitoches, La., Oct. 15, 1892. 

I, the undersigned, deputy clerk of the loth Dist. 
Court Parish of Natchitoches, La., do hereby certify 
that I am well acquainted with Lanny Chopin and 
Phanor Breazeale, having known them for 15 or 20 
years past; that they are both credible and reliable 
gentlemen, and any statement made by them is worthy 
of all confidence. 

I further certify that both of the gentlemen named 
reside in this parish. P. P. Breazeale being now the 
district attorney for this, the loth Jydicial District of 
the State of Louisiana, and Mr. Chopin being a planter 
and manager and owner in the proportion of about 
one-half of the Givanovich-Chopin Oil Co. of this city. 

Witness my hand and official seal, Oct. 15, 1892. 
r- -, Jno. a. Barlow, 

L^^^^-J Deputy Clerk. 

Natchitoches, La., Oct. 15, 1892. 
I certify that there is situated on the plantation on 
Red river, in this parish, a cabin — which is notoriously 
recognized as "Uncle Tom's Cabin." The plantation is 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 47 

now owned by L. Chopin, and was formerly the Mc- 
Alpin plantation; and passersby on the trains of 
the T. & P. R. R. Co. almost invariably (when cog- 
nizant of the facts) request that Chopin's plantation 
and the cabin be shown them. 

It is traditional that McAlpin was a hard master 
on his slaves, and that his cruelty caused the death of 
several of them. 

P 1 Jno. a. Barlow, 

L^^^^-J D. Clk. loth D. C. 

State of Louisiana, ) 
Parish of Natchitoches. \ 

Before me, the undersigned authority duly qualified, 
personally came and appeared Richard McLean, to me 
well known as a truthful and reliable person, who be- 
ing by me duly sworn, according to law, deposes and 
says: 

That he is 83 years of age, and has resided in the 
parish of Natchitoches for the past 58 years. 

I knew Robert McAlpin who formerly lived in this 
parish, on the plantation now owned by L. Chopin. 

I knew from general reputation that McAlpin was 
a very severe master and hard on his slaves. And I 
have always heard that ''Uncle Tom's Cabin" was situa- 
ted on the McAlpin plantation, and that the book of 
Mrs. Stowe was written whilst on a visit to McAlpin — 
which book was called Uncle Tom's Cabin, by her. 

Richard McLean. 

Sworn to and subscribed before me this 28th day 

of November, 1892. 

P -1 Jno. a. Barlow, 

\-^^^^'\ D. Clk. D. C. 

New Orleans, La., November 18, 1891. 
I hereby certify that the following statement is cor- 



48 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN 

rect, basing my opinion on the statements, history 
and traditions of old settlers and people living there, 
that the original Uncle Tom's Cabiii is situated at the 
station of Chopin, near Cane river, a part of Red river 
parish of Natchitoches, State of Louisiana, on Texas 
and Pacific railroad. 

I was president of Chopin Lumber Company at 
that place, and the logs sawed at our mills were cut 
from the land formerly owned by McAlpin, and the 
said McAlpin was the Legree of the book; and from 
all I could learn he fully justified the authoress, Harriet 
Beecher Stowe, in using him under a disguised name 
to illustrate such character as was desired to show 
heartlessness and cruelty. McAlpin was the original 
Legree, and this cabin was Uncle Tom's. The present 
owner of the property I have known for years (L. 
Chopin), and he is an honorable gentleman, and his 
statements can be relied upon. 

Yours truly, 

C. S. Burt. 

Sworn to and subscribed before a qualified notary 
public in and for the Parish of Orleans, State of Louis- 
iana, by Charles S. Burt, on this i8th day of Novem- 
ber, A. D. 1891, as witness my hand and seal. 

Jno. L Ward, 
[seal.] Notary Public. 

New Orleans, La., Nov. 18, 1891. 
To Whom it May Concern: 

Having been a resident of Chopin, La., for a num- 
ber of years, I would say that I have always heard the 
log cabin, situated about four hundred yards from the 
Texas and Pacific railroad, spoken of by the old resi- 
dents as the original of Uncle Tom's Cabin, and that 
Mr. McAlpin, who formerly owned the Chopin planta- 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM*S CABIN 49 

tion, was known as a person fully capable of being the 
Legree of the romance of Mrs. Stowe. I am fully con- 
vinced, from information I gained there, that the above 
statement is correct. 

Wm. p. Luck, 
Traveling Salesman for C. S. Burt. 

Sworn to and subscribed before me by William P. 
Luck, at New Orleans, La., on the i8th day of Novem- 
ber, A. D. 1891, as witness my hand and seal as a duly- 
qualified notary public in and for the Parish of Orleans, 
State of Louisiana, aforesaid. 

Jno. L Ward, 
[seal.] Notary Public. 

I hereby certify, that having lived a number of 
months at Chopin, Louisiana, I had always heard a 
certain old log cabin situated a few hundred yards 
from the railroad track referred to as *'Uncle Tom's 
Cabin," and it was admitted by people living there- 
about without question, that the cabin was the 
one formerly occupied by Harriet Beecher Stowe's 
famous "Uncle Tom." It is also a fact that the former 
owner of the plantation upon which this cabin stood 
was an exceedingly cruel man to his slaves, and it was 
from him that Mrs. Stowe undoubtedly took her char- 
acter of "Legree." His grave is not far from the old 
plantation house. 

Arthur M. Odell. 

Sworn to and subscribed before me this 14th day 
of December, 1891, at New Orleans, La. 

[seal.] J. Zach. Spearing, 

Notary Public. 
The State of Louisiana, > 
City of New Orleans. J 
My name is T. G. Thurston, and I now live in the 

city of New Orleans. I was born at Saline in Texas 
4 



^0 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN 

in 1844. My father moved to the city of New Orleans, 
in 1846, at which place I have resided ever since. My 
father's mother was the daughter of Gen. Gates of 
revolutionary fame. Hence I am the great grandson 
of the general. 

I have always had and still have a due regard for 
the truth in all matters. In 1852 I went on a side- 
wheel steamboat from New Orleans to Shreveport, La. 
Though quite young, I remember the trip well, for it 
was my father's boat, and further it was the first side- 
wheel boat that ever went up Red river. It was on 
this trip up the river in 1852 that I heard for the first 
time of Uncle Tom's cabin, and I heard then that it 
was situated on Red river in Louisiana. But I do not 
remember to have seen the cabin then. 

I grew up to manhood and entered the Confederate 
army in the late war, where I served respectively 
under Gens. Beaureguard, Bragg, Johnson and Hood, 
as courier to each. And when the war was over re- 
turned home to New Orleans. 

I am at present acting as conductor of a Pullman 
sleeping car on the T. & P. R. R., which road passes 
between the cabin of Uncle Tom and the residence of 
Robt. McAlpin, alias Simon Legree, in the lower por- 
tion of Natchitoches Parish, La. I have been running 
the road about seven years and have shown to many 
people this cabin as Uncle Tom's cabin. The old 
people along in that immediate section say it is the 
cabin, and I verily believe it to be the cabin. Of course 
I cannot say that I know it to be so, but I can say and 
do swear that from the best information upon the sub- 
ject that there is no doubt in my mind that it is Uncle 
Tom's cabin, and I do so swear. 

T. G. Thurston. 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOMS CABIN 5 1 

Subscribed and sworn to before me, a duly qualified 
notary public, in and for the Parish of Orleans, State of 
Louisiana, this 22d day of October, 1892. 

[seal.] J. D. Taylor, 

Notary Public. 

What Hon. R. T. Vinson, mayor of Shreveport, 
Louisiana, says in a recent letter: 

December 7, 1892. 
Capt. Chopin, Natchitoches, La.: 

Dear Captain: It affords me pleasure to testify 
in reference to Uncle Tom's cabin. I have known of 
this cabin for years, and believe it to be the original. 
I tried to purchase it from you to be sent on to the 
exposition. I also interviewed the old citizens of your 
neighborhood, and all agree that the cabin was oc- 
cupied by Uncle Tom during the time he was owned 
by McAlpin. This is certainly the cabin that Mrs. 
Stowe wrote about. Respectfully, 

R. T. Vinson, Mayor. 
State of Louisiana, \ 
Parish of Natchitoches, f 

Before me, the undersigned authority duly qualified, 
personally came and appeared Wellington Slidell, a 
resident of the parish and state above named, and to 
me well known, who being by me first duly sworn 
according to law, deposes and says, as follows: 

"My name is Wellington Slidell. I am a colored 
man and am about eighty years of age. I knew Mr. 
Robert McAlpin and remember him well. He bought 
me in New Orleans when I was eight years old, and 
I was owned by him as a slave up to the time of his 
death, at which time I was thirty-iour years old. 
McAlpin died on what is now called the Chopin 
plantation and is buried on that place. 



52 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN 

"McAlpin, when drinking, was mean and very cruel 
to his slaves. On one occasion I remember we were 
working in some new ground, which had just been put 
in cultivation. It was so cold at the time we had to 
work with our coats on. The cook, whose name was 
Mary, didn't cook dinner to suit him and he whipped 
her unmercifully and tied her, entirely naked, to a 
stake. He broke her jaw with his walking stick. 
When he finished whipping her she could not walk, 
and we had to carry her into the kitchen. She died 
that night about nine o'clock. 

"Mr. McAlpin was very mean to Tom and another 
slave he owned named William. 

"He was harder on his house servants and yard boys, 
and meaner to them than the balance of us, because 
they were around him more when he was drunk. 

"McAlpin had two yellow girls (mulattoes) that 
worked in the house. Their names were Rebecca and 
Lucinda. He did not allow any of us field hands to 
talk to these girls — he kept them as his wives. 

"On one occasion my brother talked with one of 
these girls, and he whipped him nearly to death. He 
sold Rebecca and kept Lucinda because she would not 
let us talk to her. He sent Rebecca to New Orleans and 
sold her after keeping her several years, because he was 
afraid she might poison him on account of his cruelty 
to her, as when he was sick she gave him his medicine. 

"I am so old and infirm and my memory has failed 
me, so I can't recall much that happened whilst I was 
owned by McAlpin, but I do know we (his slaves) 
were all mighty glad when he died." 

his 

Wellington + Slidell. 

mark 
declaring he could not write. 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 53 

Sworn to and subscribed before me at Natchitoches, 
La., this 8th day of December, 1892. 
[seal.] Jno. a. Barlow, 

Dy. Clk. D. C. 

Note. — The Lucinda mentioned in the above statement is 

none other than the Cassey of Mrs. Stowe's book. She is still 

remembered by many of the old plantation negroes of that 

neighborhood as the finest formed negress they ever looked upon. 

The Deinocrat Review, of Natchitoches, La., of Dec. 
2, 1892, says: 

UNCLE TOM'S cabin. — REALITY OF THE WORLD- 
RENOWNED FICTION. 

The countless thousands who have wept over the 
pages of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's realistic recital 
of **Uncle Tom's" thraldom, will certainly embrace the 
opportunity to visit the cabin in which " Uncle Tom " 
lived and died. That opportunity will be given to all, 
for the cabin will be exhibited at the World's Colum- 
bian Exposition. The cabin is without doubt the gen- 
uine little hut that sheltered Uncle Tom. Tradition, 
and the corroborative testimony of many old citizens 
of this parish, are guarantees of its authenticity. 

Recently accounts have been published in several 
journals, notably in the "Home and Farm," of Louisville, 
Ky., under date of November 15, 1892, from the pen 
of Bill Arp, and in the Chicago ''Tribune," of November 
21, 1892, this latter being accompanied with truthful 
pictures of " Uncle Tom's Cabin," " Church on the 
Plantation," and the "Robert McAlpin Home." 

These buildings still exist. The plantation on which 
they stand is on the Texas & Pacific railroad, on Cane 
river, twenty-seven miles below Natchitoches, in this 
parish. The railroad cuts off a part of the home of 
McAlpin. 



54 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CAIJIN 

Mrs, Stowe, in her work, describes Legree's home 
as a low two-story structure, surrounded by wide ve- 
randas supported by brick pillars, with two rows of 
China trees in front of the house. This is an exact 
description of the McAlpin house, except that the back 
galleries have since been closed in, and made into 
rooms — the floors of these improvised rooms still re- 
taining the usual inclination given to a gallery; and 
w ith the further exception that one row of trees was 
cut down by Mr, Chopin's father. 

McAlpin owned a slave by the name of *'Uncle 
Tom," and reliable witnesses now testify that his treat- 
ment of this slave was particularly harsh, 

Robert McAlpin was a Northerner of Scotch 
descent, who in his sober moments was genial and 
hospitable. But he was greatly intemperate, when he 
became cruel, brutal and harsh to his slaves, a fit sub- 
ject from whom to draw such a character as Legree. 

And we have no doubt, that Mrs. Stowe's brother, 
who visited this section of Red river, as she herself 
says in her admirable book, referred to McAlpin when 
he related to her his experiences with a Red river 
planter whom he had found so cruel, and that McAlpin 
was the original Legree of the work. 

The cabin in which the negro, "Uncle Tom," owned 
by McAlpin, lived, is in a fair state of preservation. 
The logs and shingles of which it is constructed are of 
cypress, a timber that withstands the decaying touch 
of time. 

These landmarks of the great novel coincide so 
closely with Mrs. Stowe's descriptions that they have 
been accepted as the originals on which her imagina- 
tion built her remarkable and thrilling history. 

By those living on the place and in the parish, it 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN 55 

has long been known as "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and the 
plantation as that of ''Legree." The place was pur- 
chased by I\Ir. J. B. Chopin, the father of the present 
owner, in 1S52, at the death of Robert INIcAlpin. 

For a number of years Mr. L. Chopin has had it 
guarded by a faithful colored servitor, to prevent its 
being razed to the ground by eager relic hunters. In 
truth, a number of board slabs nailed on the logs were 
carried off by curious visitors who had learned its his- 
tory. 

Some months ago this writer, then a resident of 
Shreveport, was aware of an attempt of prominent citi- 
zens to purchase outright this same structure, to trans- 
plant it entire to the World's Fair, as a relic, around 
which clustered a world-wide fame, given it by fiction. 
Mr. Chopin then, as he has repeatedly since, declined 
to part with the building. 

Several weeks ago Mr. D. B. Corley visited this 
city in company with G. E. Ward, of Abilene, Tex., 
and took a number of photographic views in and around 
this city, and among others in the parish, the famed 
mementoes of Uncle Tom. 

When this article meets the gaze of the readers, 
Uncle Tom's cabin will have left its birthplace and 
long years of rest on the soil where it was originally 
built, and have been transplanted to Chicago. It has 
not been sold to Mr. Corley, but only leased to him by 
the present owner. It is to be returned in its entirety 
when the lease expires. 

Tradition, the belief among old residents, black and 
white, the coincidence of the reality in substantiation 
of the description, confirms the general belief that this 
cabin is the true Uncle Tom's cabin of Mrs. Stowc's 
novel. 



56 A VISIT TO UXCX^ TOM S CABIN 

Natchitoches, settled in I7I0» is replete with ancient 
landmarks, of a century dropped into the irrevocable 
past, but "Uncle Tom's cabin" is a mile-stone on the 
highway of life that has its "confirmations strong as 
proofs of holy writ/* 

The Enterprise, of Natchitoches, La., of Dec. i. 
1S92, sa>-s: 

The famous novei. wiiich bears the strange title of 
'"Uncle Tom's Cabin/' which was given to the world 
during the excitement over the fugitive slave law, and 
which had much to do with bringing about the terrible 
four years* conflict between the North and the South, 
is still a book that attracts the greatest interest 
throughout the ci\ilized world, and ever\-thing con- 
nected with it is sought for \^-ith the keenest interest. 
So when the announcement is made that the home of 
Uncle Tom is to be placed on exhibition at the World's 
Fair, the truly interested and the skeptic asks, ''Is it 
really Uncle Tom's cabin or a fake?'' 

There is no ^xitten evidence, or notarial act to 
pro\-e that this little log hut which is being taken to 
Chicago w^s the home of Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom, nor 
is there any to pro\-e it is not, btti tiure is tradition weU 
authenticated to substantiate the claim that this was 
Uncle Tom's cabin and that the old McAIpIn planta- 
tion situated on the Texas and Pacific railroad vol the 
lower portion of this parish, and now owned by L. 
Chopin^ having been bought hy Mr. Chopin's father in 
1S52 from the McAlpin succession, is where were 
enacted the scenes described in Mrs. Stowe's famous 
story. 

Why is this believed to be Uncle T:~: f :;/:•.-? 
Because e\*er\- scene iboiit the old McAlp::: z .2": ■.: ; - 
fits Mrs. Stowe's description to a nicety. Tz. ; : 



A VISIT TO UN'CLE TOM'S CABIN 57 

the residence and location all tally with the picture 
drawn in "Uncle Tom's Cabin;" and tradition tells us that 
Robert McAlpin was such a character as Mrs. Stowe's 
Simon Legree; and her own evidence given in one of 
the reviews of her work wherein she states that the 
character called Simon Legree was suggested by a let- 
ter from her brother then in New Orleans, who had 
visited a planter on the Red river; and the further evi- 
dence, which is obtainable from old residents, that her 
brother visited ]\Ir. IMcAlpin, is proof positive so far as 
circumstantial evidence can make it that Mr. McAlpin 
was the real Simon Legree, and it is not unreasonable 
to believe that Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom is the same 
Uncle Tom who is known to have lived upon the same 
plantation. 

The Chicago Tribune of Sunday, November 20, pub- 
lished a lengthy article upon the subject with pictures 
of Uncle Tom's cabin, Robert McAlpin's home and the 
old plantation colored Methodist church. 

The cut in the Trihune presents true pictures of 
these buildings. The one of the cabin is perfect. 

So well satisfied are all who have taken trouble to 
investigate, that the cabin, claimed to have been the 
home of this now noted character, is the one and only 
one entitled to bear the name given to Mrs. Stowe's 
book. Numberless offers to buy from Mr. Chopin this 
property outright have been made within the past sev- 
eral years, but which have been steadily refused, be- 
cause Mr. Chopin feels confident he has in his posses- 
sion the real " Uncle Tom's Cabin," and does not care 
to part with it at any price. 

But last week Mr. Chopin closed a bargain with 
Judge D. B. Corley of Abilene, Texas, for a five years* 
lease of the cabin, with good and solvent security for 



58 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN 

its return and re-erection upon the same spot where it 
now stands, upon the expiration of the lease. 

Judge Corley begins removing the cabin to-day; 
and by the first of next year it will be on exhibition in 
Chicago. 

Many of the strips which closed the cracks between 
the logs have been torn away by relic seekers. Only a 
year or two ago Jay Gould, in company with his 
daughter, stopped upon his tour of inspection of his 
Texas Pacific R. R. line, to visit this now historic cabin, 
and carried away with him a shingle from its roof as a 
memento. For the past several years Mr. Chopin has 
been forced to keep a watch over this building to pro- 
tect it from the ravenous relic seekers. 

The New Orleans Times-Democrat of December 4, 
1892, says: 

Half asleep, scarcely half dressed and with the re- 
mainder of my clothes in my hand, I tumbled hurriedly 
off the west-bound Texas and Pacific train three- 
quarters of an hour before daylight yesterday morning. 
I was ticketed for Chopin, La., and the sleeping-car 
conductor had solemnly promised to have me called 
forty-five minutes before the train couM reach here. 
Foolishly relying upon his promise I slept "like a log" 
until the negro porter called me not ten minutes before 
arrival at my destination. The morning was warm and 
murky, without even the faintest gleam of starlight to 
relieve the thick darkness after the train with its sub- 
dued lights from half-darkened windows had swept off 
up the road and faded from view. Standing between 
two bales of cotton on the station platform, I com- 
pleted the task of dressing (barely commenced on the 
train) and then waited for the coming of daylight. 

I had come here for the purpose of looking over the 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 59 

premises, which were in Mrs. Stowe's mind as a model 
when she penned the tragic scenes with which her 
widely known novel, '' Uncle Tom's Cabin," is brought 
to a climax and almost to a close. 

Mr. D. B. Corley, ex-mayor of Abilene, Tex., had 
obtained the right of exhibiting what is supposed 
to have been "Uncle Tom's Cabin" at the World's Fair, 
and upon his invitation I had come to Chopin to look 
over what is here believed to have been the model 
after which Mrs. Stowe designed her Legree plantation, 
and to hear what I could of the former owner of the 
property. 

Of course, in the light of an intimate acquaintance 
with the authentic history and traditions of slavery in 
Louisiana, any sane person cannot but realize that the 
pictures of unbridled license and brutal tyranny asso- 
ciated with Simon Legree's plantation have been 
greatly overdrawn; but quite aside from this, it is well 
known that this same story was a powerfully written 
one, and that it was, without doubt, one of the most 
aggressive agents in the making of subsequent history 
that has found a place in American fiction. 

For this reason, therefore, no matter to what extent 
one may discredit the tone and methods of Harriet 
Beecher Stowe's masterpiece, whatever may be found 
remaining in tangible form of the models used by her 
in the designing of her fiction, must be looked upon as 
historic relics of no ordinary value. 

WHAT IS CLAIMED BY MR. CORLEY- 

The claim made by Mr. Corley is substantially as 
follows : 

''What is now the Chopin plantation is the model 
from which Mrs. Stowe sketched the Legree planta- 



60 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN 

tion, that the former owner of this property, Robert 
McAlpin, was the Simon Legree of the novel; that a 
small cabin, i6xi8, which still stands upon its original 
site in the old quarters, is the cabin in which Uncle 
Tom spent the last sad months of his servitude; that 
the greater part of the Legree mansion still stands 
upon the spot where Uncle Tom first saw it, and in 
short, that in just so far as this portion of the novel 
are founded on fact, so far are these historic relics 
genuine. 

"Possibly the best way to weigh the claims made 
by Mr. Corley will be to compare the descriptions in 
the novel with the models after which it is claimed 
they were drawn. 

"The novel describes Simon Legree as 'a short, 
broad, muscular man, in a checked shirt considerably 
open at the bosom, and pantaloons much the worse for 
dirt and wear. * * * He was evidently, though 
short, of gigantic strength. His round, bullet head, 
large, light gray eyes, with their shaggy, sandy eye- 
brows and stiff, wiry, sun-burned hair, were rather un- 
prepossessing items, it is to be confessed; his large, 
coarse mouth was distended with tobacco, the juice of 
which, from time to time, he ejected from him with 
great decision and explosive force; his hands were 
immensely large, hairy, sun-burned, freckled and very 
dirty, and garnished with long nails in a very foul con- 
dition.'" 

The story also pictures Legree as a hard drinker, 
violent in temper, cruel, superstitious and licentious. 
He never employed an overseer, but only two negro 
drivers. He is described as a planter on Red river, 
but at the same time the story tells that on the journey 
to the plantation, Uncle Tom and other slaves purchased 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN 6l 

at the same time were "trailing wearily behind a rude 
wagon over a ruder road. * * * It was a wild, for- 
saken road, now winding through dreary pine barrens, 
where the wind whispered mournfully, and now over 
log causeways, through long cypress swamps, the dole- 
ful trees rising out of the slimy, spongy ground, hung 
with long wreaths of funereal black moss." 

Legree is also described as having been born in 
New England. 

THE PROTOTYPE OF LEGREE. 

The supposed prototype of Legree was a man 
named Robert McAlpin. Senator Henry, who in his 
early boyhood was employed in the store of his uncle, 
who was then doing business in Natchitoches long be- 
fore the war, remembers Robert McAlpin very well, 
though he had seen little or nothing of him except 
when he was visiting Natchitoches for business or 
pleasure. He was a man of light complexion with 
reddish or sandy hair and beard. Though consider- 
ably below medium height he was very broad and 
heavily built, weighing between i8o and 200 pounds. 
He was nearly always half drunk or more on the occasion 
of these visits, and was very much liked by the men 
and boys of the town for his good-natured and jovial, 
rollicking disposition. He was disposed to spend his 
money freely, and was very fond of entertaining friends 
or acquaintances at his plantation, which was always 
very liberally stocked with good wines and liquors. 
Mr. Henry did not remember to have heard any stories 
about his extraordinary cruelty to his slaves, though as 
thirty miles of bad road lay between Natchitoches and 
McAlpin's plantation he admits that he might have 
been severe with his slaves without any intimation of 



62 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN 

it reaching Natchitoches in those days of slow loco- 
motion over bad roads. He had since heard stories of 
McAlpin's extraordinary cruelty to his slaves, but he 
had always been of opinion that they had been ex- 
aggerated. 

Mrs. Valery Gaiennie, who lived on the Gaiennie 
plantation, being within visiting distance of the McAl- 
pin plantation, remembers Robert McAlpin well. She 
had often visited his place. He was always very cour- 
teous and gentlemanly in the presence of ladies, but 
his extraordinary cruelties to his slaves were very com- 
monly talked about by both whites and blacks on the 
neighboring plantations. It was very generally believed 
that these excesses were the result of drunkenness, but 
as he was a very hard and almost constant drinker, his 
slaves led a hard life. Mrs. Gaiennie also remembers 
an elderly negro on the place who used to be called 
"Uncle Tom." She describes him as a well-behaved, 
respectable and kind-hearted old man, but he always 
used to wear a serious, sad look, which caused her and 
other lady visitors to the McAlpin plantation to feel 
sorry for him. It was also reported in those days that 
McAlpin was particularly mean and cruel to "Uncle 
Tom," who was sadder, more serious and much better 
bred than a vast majority of Red river slaves. He 
used to ferry visitors across the river, look after the 
yard, and wait upon the table. It was generally sup- 
posed that McAlpin's cruelty to "Uncle Tom" was the 
chief cause of the slave's subdued and dejected manner. 

Other ladies of the Cane river settlements corrobo- 
rate these statements, and no better evidence of Mc- 
Alpin's extraordinary cruelty can be had than the fact 
that from the time of his death up to within a compar- 
atively recent date, the negroes and the more supersti- 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN 63 

tious of the whites have believed that the place was 
haunted by his ghost, which has been one of the terrors 
of that whole region. One of the stories still believed 
about Robert McAlpin is that having once become 
very angry with a slave, he sewed him up in a sack 
and drowned him in Cane river. McAlpin never en- 
trusted his business to an overseer, but employed negro 
drivers only. 

Another circumstance that may be mentioned in 
this connection which, while it fails to show any con- 
nection between McAlpin and "Legree," is in itself 
rather amusing. One of the ladies who knew McAlpin 
intimately as a neighbor, says that at one time he had a 
lady from the North visiting him. She says that this 
lady was not disposed to associate with the ladies of 
the neighborhood and, "as she was a Yankee, we did 
not care to cultivate her acquaintance." The narrator 
adds that after the novel came out they were of the 
opinion that this mysterious visitor was its author. 

IDENTITY OF THE LOCATION. 

As to the identity of the location of the McAlpin 
plantation with that of the **Legree" place, it will be 
remembered that while the former was on Cane river 
the latter was said to be on Red river. Long ago, and 
not very long before Legree's time, what has since been 
known as Cane river was the main channel of Red 
river, and that until railway transportation began to 
cut away the Red river steamboat trade, all the coun- 
try supposed to be tributary to the Red river trade was 
embraced in the general term "Red river country." 
Besides this it will be remembered that the novel 
describes a long and weary journey from the steam- 
boat landing. The McAlpin place is about ten miles 



.64 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN- 

from an old landing on Red river, and the old trail 
between these points was very like that described in 
the novel. 

The description of the "Legree" mansion corre- 
sponds very accurately with what the McAlpin resi- 
dence used to be when Mr. Chopin's father purchased it 
early in the "fifties." The story says: 

The wagon rolled up a weedy gravel walk under a 
noble avenue of China trees, whose graceful forms and 
ever springing foliage seemed to be the only things 
there that neglect could not daunt or alter — like noble 
spirits so deeply rooted in goodness as to flourish and 
grow stronger amid discouragement and decay. 

The house had been large and handsome. It was 
built in a manner common to the South, a wide veranda 
of two stories running around every part of the house, 
into which every outer door opened, the lower tier 
being supported by brick pillars. 

As the McAlpin mansion stands upon a point 
made by the junction of a deep gulch or bayou with 
Cane river, the caving of the banks of both streams 
(common to all streams in the Red river country) has 
had the effect of somewhat reducing what were some 
time spacious grounds surrounding it. The present 
owner of the property, Mr. Chopin, well remembers 
when the outer row of China trees forming the avenue 
described were cut down by the order of his father, 
who purchased the plantation shortly after McAlpin's 
death. These trees were cut down because the caving of 
the bank of Cane river had caused them to sink down 
several feet below the level of the inner row, which 
still stands flourishing in front of the house. 

The veranda at the front of what remains of the 
house still stands just as Mrs, Stowe has described it, but 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN 65 

at the back of the house it has been inclosed with 
rough woodwork (not aj: all in keeping with the origi- 
nal building) for the purpose of adding to the capacity 
of the house. At the north end the veranda was long 
ago cut away, and the south end of the building 
encroaching upon the line of the Texas and Pacific 
railway was cut away to the extent of some twenty- 
two feet to make room for the roadbed. 

The interior, as well as the exterior of this house, 
corresponds well with the general description in the 
book. Before the cutting away of the south end 
to make room for the railway, the house was 75 feet 
long, but without the broad galleries could not have 
been more than about 20 feet wide. It has an old- 
fashioned, high pitched roof, whose eaves extend to 
form the veranda roof. The roof is covered with 
shingles, thickly crusted with dark green moss. They 
are of split cypress, longer and much heavier than the 
shingles of to-day. Though the house wears the look 
of extreme old age, it is evident that it was a very 
highly finished and handsome residence in its time. 
The joists supporting the upper floors are not only 
smoothly planed, but delicately beaded. All the origi- 
nal casements are richly ornamented with beaded 
edges and deep moldings, while the doors are of six 
panels, elaborately bordered with fine moldings. Be- 
neath the eaves and in certain portions less exposed to 
climatic influences, the walls show traces of having 
been painted white, while there are distinct traces of 
green on the old broken shutters; but the general effect 
of the whole exterior is that dark, steely gray, indica- 
tive of three-quarters of a century or more of weather 
stain. 

The old house stands facing the convex of a sharp 
5 



(£ A VISIT TO UNXLE TOM's CABIN 

bend in Cane river, which only a few hundred yards 
southeastward cuts off rather abruptly a wooded spur 
that juts out of the hill country extending away west- 
ward to the Texas line. Almost parallel with the 
course of Cane river at this point the railway cuts 
through this same spur. Its course is through a natural 
depression which long ago marked the site of an old 
wagon trail from Red river, the railway cutting being 
about fifty feet deep. Sheltered by this same wooded 
spur is a broad stretch of bottom lands extending 
away to the southvrest, ending in a swamp which in 
turn gives place to a small chain of shallow, marshy 
lakes, whose outlet is a small bayou. This, as it 
approaches its junction with the Cane river, runs within 
a few yards of the back door of the old ]\IcAlpin resi- 
dence and is well sheltered by comparatively high and 
precipitous banks. On the stretch of bottoms between 
the spur and this bayou already described, is a great 
field of cotton land which is somewhat wedge-shaped, 
with the apex reaching up to the ]\IcAlpin mansion. 
Some two or three hundred yards from the old house, 
extending in the direction of the swamps, is the site of 
the old "quarters" of the plantation, but just now only 
one of these cabins remains. 

UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. 

Since Mr. Chopin, the present owner of the property, 
succeeded to it, the negroes complained about "living 
in a bunch" in the old-fashioned way, and in compli- 
ance with their wishes the cabins were scattered about 
the place; ]\Ir. Chopin leaving only one upon its 
original site, and this was left because it had always 
been known as "Uncle Tom's Cabin" since before the 
property passed into the hands of the Chopin family 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN ()1 

in l8?2. In former times it had a low, broad gallery 
or awning, extending along the front, but this tumbled 
down some years ago, and within a comparatively short 
time Mr. Chopin has built a similar one on the opposite 
side of the cabin. The old cabin has a steeply pitched 
roof of thick, long cypress shingles, thickly encrusted 
with dark green moss. It is built oi cypress logs, 
:.hich seem' to have been from twelve to eighteen 
inches in diameter, but either sawed or hewn flat on 
both sides to a thickness of not more than six or seven 
inches. The joints made by the logs at the corners o 
the building have been closely finished, in dovetail 
fashion, and not merely "saddled," as mos of the o Id 
backwoods' frontier cabins used to be. It origina ly 
had merely a ground floor, and the gallery was also 
wtthou an'y artificial flooring. There is a large open- 
L for a fireplace, but the big brick chimney which 
fofmerly stood against the house and extended above 
he gabL has crumbled into ruins. Mr. Chopin knew 
this as "Uncle Tom's Cabin" from his earliest child- 
hood, and it was known by that name when his fa her 
bought the plantation and before any one m the neigh- 
borhood had learned of the existence of Mrs. Stowe s 

""Tt may be mentioned here that it has been custorn- 
aryto point out the kitchen of the old mansion as Uncle 
Tom's cabin to save the real cabin from bemg despoiled 

bv relic hunters. . . 

The position of the McAlpin mansion, the site of 
the old Quarters, and the peculiar course of the swamps 
and the bayous all accurately fit the leading event 
described in such minute detail in her tragic story of 
the Legree plantation. 



68 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN 

THE FLIGHT OF CASSEY AND EMELINE. 

Cassey and Emeline are said to have left the house 
on their pretended flight, and passing down by the 
quarters fled to the swamp beyond, when Legree called 
after them. Such is the peculiar topography of the 
McAlpin plantation that these women, taking the 
course indicated,' could have run in a straight line to 
the tangled undergrowth of the bottom lands and then 
strike a small gulch having precipitous banks, several 
feet higher than their heads. The water in the bottom 
of this little gulch would have rendered it impossible 
for the dogs to follow their trail from the point where 
they had entered it, and following it back toward home 
they could have entered the shallow bayou between 
high cut banks at the junction, and then they could 
have walked up the bayou to a point not more than 
thirty yards from the back door of the McAlpin man- 
sion. This, it will be remembered, tallies so accurately 
with Mrs. Stowe's story of the flight of Cassey and 
Emeline, that it seems impossible that she could 
have framed the story without an intimate knowledge 
of the peculiar topography of the McAlpin property. 

Another very pronounced feature of similarity be- 
tween the McAlpin estate of reality and the Legree 
plantation of the romance is found in the fact that the 
former is, and necessarily has been always isolated 
from neighboring plantations. On the southwest lie 
swamps and marshy lakes, bordered by rugged, thickly 
wood spurs from the rough hill country that reaches 
away westward, while the swampy bottoms of Cane 
river and its sluggish tributary and estuary bayous 
shut it in on the opposite boundary. In McAlpin's 
time the trails were few, tortuous, rough and very 
badly kept. McAlpin was the only white man resident 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN 69 

on the place, so that had he willed it he might, with 
comparative safety, have enacted all the horrible bar- 
barities which Mrs. Stowe's highly colored romance 
has attributed to him. 

TRADITIONS OF ROBERT MCALPIN. 

While it is practically impossible to believe that 
the story of Simon Legree is not a grossly exaggerated 
one, it must be admitted that it very accurately corre- 
sponds with the traditions that have been handed down 
as authentic history among the old negroes and the 
poorer classes of white settlers on Cane river concern- 
ing Robert McAlpin. 

Still another point of resemblance between McAlpin 
and Legree is that while Mrs. Stowe declares Legree 
to have been a New Englander, the records show that 
after McAlpin's death the proceeds of the sale of his 
plantation and other property were remitted to his 
heirs, who were resident in New England. 

In the forty-second chapter of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," 
which- follows Uncle Tom's death and burial, Mrs. 
Stowe says: 

For some reason, ghostly legends were uncom- 
monly rife about this time among the servants on Le- 
gree's place. 

****** 

Authorities were somewhat divided as to the out- 
ward form of the spirit, owing to a custom quite prev- 
alent among negroes, and for aught we know, among 
whites, too, of invariably shutting the eyes and cover- 
ing up heads under blankets, petticoats, or whatever 
might come in use for a shelter on these occasions. 
Of course, as everybody knows, when the bodily eyes 
are thus out of the lists, the spiritual eyes are uncom- 
monly vivacious and perspicuous, and therefore there 



yO A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 

were abundance of full-length portraits of the ghost 

abundantly sworn and testified to, which, as is often 

the case with portraits, agreed with each other in no 

particular except the common family peculiarity of the 

ghost tribe — the wearing of a white sheet. 

****** 

Be it as it may, we have private reasons for know- 
ing that a tall figure in a white sheet did walk, at the 
most approved ghostly hours, around the Legree 
premises — pass out the doors, glide about the house — 
disappear at intervals, and reappearing, pass up the 
silent stairway into that fatal garret; and that, in the 
morning, the entry doors were all found shut and 
locked as firm as ever. 

Legree could not help overhearing this whispering, 
and it was all the more exciting to him, from the pains 
that were taken to conceal it from him. He drank 
more brandy than usual, held up his head briskly, and 
swore louder than ever in the daytime; but he had bad 
dreams, and the visions of his head on his bed were 
anything but agreeable. The night after Tom's body 
had been carried away he rode to the next town for a 
carouse, and had a high one. Got home late and tired, 
locked his door, took out the key and went to bed. 
***** * * 

legree's death. 

But Legree locked his doors and set a chair against 
it; he set a night lamp at the head of his bed, and he 
put his pistols there. He examined the catches and 
fastenings of the windows and then swore he "didn't 
care for the devil and all his angels," and went to 
sleep. 

Well, he slept, for he was tired — slept soundly. 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 7I 

But finally there came over his sleep a shadow, a hor- 
ror, an apprehension of something hanging over him. 
It was his mother's shroud, he thought, but Cassey had 
it holding it up, and shov/ing it to him. He had heard 
a confused noise of screams and groanings; and, with 
it all, he knew he was asleep, and he struggled to wake 
himself. He was half awake. He was sure something 
was coming into his room. He knew the door was 
opening, but he could not stir hand nor foot. At last 
he turned, with a start; the door was open, and he saw 
a hand putting out his light. 

It was a cloudy, misty moonligjit, and there he saw 
it! — something white, gliding in! He heard the still 
rustle of its ghostly garments. It stood still by his 
bed, a cold hand touched his; a voice said, three times 
in a low, fearful whisper, "Come! come! come!" And, 
while he lay sweating with terror, he knew not when or 
how, the thing was gone. He sprang out of bed and 
pulled at the door. It was shut and locked, and the 
man fell down in a swoon. 

After this Legree became a harder drinker than 
ever before. He no longer drank cautiously, pru- 
dently, but imprudently and recklessly. There were 
reports around the country, soon after, that he was sick 
and dying. Excess had brought on that frightful dis- 
ease that seems to throw the lurid shadows of a com- 
ing retribution back into the present life. None could 
bear the horrors of that sick-room when he raved and 
screamed, and spoke of sights which almost stopped 
the blood of those who heard him; and, at his dying- 
bed stood a stern, white, inexorable figure, saying, 
''Come! come! come!" 

Such is the story of the tragic ending of Simon Le- 
gree, as told by Mrs. Stowe. 



72 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 

DEDUCTIONS DRAWN. 

It has already been pointed out as a proof of Rob- 
ert McAlpin's reputation for cruelty tfiat there have 
been stories of his ghost haunting the plantation and 
the old mansion ever since he died. Is anything more 
probable than that these ghost stories may have had 
their origin in something very like the stories just 
quoted from Mrs. Stowe's novel? How much retailing 
of traditions among ignorant and superstitious negroes 
would it take to transfer the identity of a ghost from 
one of McAlpin's numerous victims to McAlpin him- 
self? 

Mrs. Stowe has luridly painted Simon Legree's 
last hours in the foregoing quotation. Cane river tra- 
ditions agree in saying that Robert McAlpin died of 
mania potu. 

It may be, indeed it is probable, that Robert Mc- 
Alpin was not as black as tradition has painted him, 
and it is highly probable that no slaveholder in Louis- 
iana ever practiced such atrocities as those which Mrs. 
Stowe has attributed to Simon Legree; but that Mrs. 
Stowe could have written the story of Simon Legree 
and his plantation without an intimate knowledge of 
the McAlpin mansion and plantation, as well as the 
stories that have now passed into tradition concerning 
McAlpin, is about as probable as that one could shake 
up a bushel of letters in a bag and then, blindfold, pour 
them out of the bag in such order as to spell the 
Lord's prayer. Theoretically, such a feat is not impos- 
sible, but the chances are millions to one against it. 
This letter makes no claim for the accuracy of Mrs. 
Stowe's pictures of slavery times, but it does claim 
that she had Robert McAlpin and his place in mind 
when she penned her chapters about Simon Legree 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 73 

and his plantation, and, therefore, that the cabin which 
Mr. Corley is about to ship to Chicago is an historic 
relic in that it is without doubt the veritable cabin in 
which the prototype of Mrs. Stowe's hero lived when 
on the plantation of the planter whom she has called 
Simon Legree. 

A VISTA OF THE PAST. 

I had been reading those chapters of "Uncle Tom's 
Cabin" relating to Simon Legree until a late hour the 
night before I landed here, and possibly this had 
caused me to be exceptionally impressionable as I 
found myself hurriedly dropped upon the supposed 
scene of that tragic romance but half awake, and before 
daybreak; but be that as it may, as I stood upon the 
little station platform and watched the gray dawn of a 
dull damp morning in late autumn stealing over the 
sombre levels of bottom land, clothed with the dark 
brown furze of ripened and half denuded cotton-stalks 
and faded yellow corn-stalks here and there broken 
down and trodden into the brick-red soil, and while I 
traced the dark outlines of the wooded hills slowly 
breaking through the cold steely mists that were drift- 
ing lazily upward into the low-hanging clouds, I could 
not but look for the tall and slender Cassey walking 
proudly and silently beside ''Uncle Tom" in every 
group of negroes that were passing out toward the cot- 
ton fields. As the light grew stronger I readily recog- 
nized the Legree mansion from the novel's description, 
in a dark, grizzly old house with lofty gables just within 
the shadow ol the wooded spur that runs from the 
far-off hills down to the verge of Cane river; and 
although of the row of cabins which had constituted 
the "quarters" but one remained upon its original site, 



74 A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 

it required no stretch of imagination to fix upon it as 
''Uncle Tom's," though others of a similar character 
were to be seen scattered in various directions about 
the plantation. 

legree's grave. 

When the morning was well advanced, and the 
clouds had been banished by a flood of brilliant sun- 
shine, I saw another relic of the old times, to which 
the novel makes no reference. Near the old mansion 
I had climbed up the slope of the thickly wooded spur 
to the crest of a little round-topped hill, which rises 
some fifty feet above the surrounding levels, and found 
myself in a strange old burying-ground. It was here 
that for many years all who died upon the plantation 
had been buried. There were no shrubs nor flowers, 
no grass-covered mounds, no graveled walks. The 
ground was thickly carpeted with dead and decaying 
leaves, the accumulations of generations; but beneath 
this thick carpet were swelling mounds on every side, 
and at the head and foot of many were rough stakes, 
weather-stained and crumbling into decay. The great 
sycamores, oaks and cottonwoods grew thickly all 
around, but they seemed to be falling into a decadence 
gruesomely suggestive of that solemn change that 
awaits everything that has life, sentient or insentient 
The oak leaves were dyed with the deep purple and 
bronze of autumn, and there were leaves of gold and 
yellow and richest carmine still fluttering in the breezes 
that stirred the lighter branches of these old monarchs 
of the forest; but there were gnarled and rugged vines 
coiling themselves like grizzled, scaly serpents about 
their thick trunks, slowly but surely choking out their 
lives, and subtly drinking their heart's blood through 



A VISIT TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN 75 

slender, graceful tendrils of daintiest green. From the 
great limbs whose interlocking branches formed a rude 
canopy through which only here and there an errant 
ray of golden sunshine could find its way, hung broad 
streamers of Spanish moss like banners of sable crape, 
grown tattered, weather-stained and gray in their long 
and weary vigil over the forgotten and unheeded dead. 
It was here that I saw the last resting-place of 
Robert McAlpin. It is the only grave of the many 
scattered over the hill that gives evidence of having 
been cared for. Four low walls of red brick rise a few 
inches out of the ground, and from these some time 
sprang a low-pitched arch or roof of the same material. 
Now the bricks are half crumbled away, and what re- 
main are encrusted with dark green moss. The tomb 
has partially caved in, and in a few more years the ever- 
thickening carpet of dead leaves will have hidden it 
from view, leaving only a leaf-covered mound to mark 
the final resting-place of the rich and proud planter as 
he sleeps side by side with those who forty years ago 
were wont to know no higher law than his unbending 
will. 



QUESTIONS. 

What were the names of the Yirgin Mary's parents 2 

What were the names of the two thieves who were crucified 

with the Savior? Which was on the right, and which on the 

left? Which one of the two did the Savior pardon? 
When did Matthew write his Gospel? Where did Matthew 

die? 
What was St. Peter's mother's name 2 What was his wife's 

name? Where did Peter die, and what was the manner of 

his death? 
What was the manner of death that all of the apostles died ? 
Where was St. Andrew killed? Who had it done? Who had 

him buried? Who had his remains removed and reinterred? 
Where was Mary Magdalene buried, and by whom was she 

buried? By whose order were her remains removed? To 

where, and when were they removed? 
How long did the Yirgin Mary live after the Crucifixion? 

By whom was she buried after her death? 
What was the name of the Roman soldier who pierced the 

Savior's side with a spear? 
What was Mrs. Pilate's given name? What was the name 

of the woman who was brought before the Savior on a charge 

of adultery? What became of her afterward? 
What was the name of the Elect Lady to whom the Second 

Epistle of John was addressed? What position did she hold 

in the church? 
Which one of the apostles was accompanied in his travels 

by his sister? What was that sister's name? 
With what did Judas Iscariot hang himself? Upon what 

did he hang himself? 
What did Josephus say about Jesus Christ? What did he 

say about one of Christ's apostles, and which one of the apos- 
tles was it? What did he say about John the Baptist? 

When was Josephus born? When did he die? 

These and many other interesting questions are answered in 

CORLEY'5 LIVES OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES. 

There is also a clear cut portrait of all twelve of the 
apostles in this book. Agents wanted everywhere. Write for 
terms. Enclose 2 cent stamp. Price by mail, $1.00. Send for a 
copy, and direct all communications to 

D. B. CORLEY, Abilene, Tex. 

76 



TESTIMONIALS. 

Hon. M. A. Spoonts, of Fort Worth, Texas, says: 
"The examination that I have given your 'Lives of the 
Apostles' has led me to believe that the religious world 
is very much your debtor for having brought so much 
valuable information, thought and judgment, on a sub- 
ject of which so little is known, within the reach of the 
most humble person. 

"The little volume is a store-house of religious 
knowledge, and should be in the hands of every fam- 
ily; and if some of the money ordinarily wasted on 
pernicious books, or for periodicals of doubtful value, 
was spent for this good book, the moral life of the 
young of the land would be greatly elevated. The 
price, Si.oo, is much less than the cost of the ordinary 
newspaper, and when the relative value of each is con- 
sidered, it is hard to understand how any person can 
hesitate to invest in it, and* afterward spend their 
money for some frivolous periodical. If you will place 
the merits of the book before the Christian people, I 
predict for it a large sale." 

Rev. John Duke McFaden, manager of "The Breth- 
ren Tract Society," of Philadelphia, and author of 
"The Story of Jesus," a little book so popular that one 
young lady has already sold 17,000 copies, says: "Your 
book, 'Lives of the Apostles,' is as valuable as interest- 
ing, and that is saying much. Every Sunday-school 
library should have one or more copies. I no longer 
believe the disciples were cowardly. Your book has 

changed several assertions, so it has done good 

77 



78 TESTIMONIALS. 

already. I have spoken of it to my friends and will 
give it a good notice in my paper. It deserves a wide 
circulation. May God bless your work." 

Rev. A. S. Bunting, pastor Cisco Baptist church, 
Cisco, Texas, says: '*I have read this book with a good 
degree of interest and pleasure. The writer exhibits a 
degree of fairness and candor in sifting testimony that 
is not always found in presenting some of the charac- 
ter sketches found in this book. It is rather unique in 
some positions taken, which indicates the author as an 
independent thinker. I cheerfully recommend it to all 
as a book worthy of a careful reading," 

Hon. T. H. Conner, judge of the 42d judicial dis- 
trict of Texas, says: "I have read with much interest 
your 'Lives of the Twelve Apostles.* All that pertains 
to the 'witnesses' upon whose testimony we so largely 
rely in our faith in the Great Redeemer of mankind 
will ever be of profound interest. Your book contains 
much valuable information that is unattainable by the 
average reader, and I very cheerfully recommend it to 
all those interested in the Bible and in the problem of 
eternal life." 



QUESTIONS 




What were the names of the Virgin Mary's parents? 

Wiiat vtere tlie names of tlie two thieves who were crucified 

with the Savior? Which was on the right, and which was on the left? 

Which one of the two did the Savior pardon? 
When did Tllatthew write his Gospel ? Where did Matthew die ? 
What was ISt. Peter's mother's name? IVhat was his wife's 

name? Where did Peter die, and what was the manner of his death? 
What was the manner of death that all of the Apostles died ? 
Where was St. Andrew killed? Who had it done? Who had! 

him buried? Who had his remains removed and reinterred? Where were 

they reinterreu? 
Where was Mary Magdalene bnried, and by whom was she 

buried? By whose order were her remains removed? To where, and when 

were they removed? 
How long did the Virgin Marj' live after the CrnciUxion? By 

whom was she buried af ler her death ? 
What was the name of the Roman soldier who pierced the 

Savior's side with a spear? 
What was Mrs. Pilate's given name? What was the name of 

the woman who was brought before the Savior on a charge tof adultery? 

What became of her afterward? 
What was the name of the £leet l<ady to whom the Second 

Epistle of John was addressed? What position did she hold in the church? 
Which one of the Apostles w^as accompanied in his travels by 

his sister? What was that sister's name? 
l¥ith what did Jndas Iscariot hang himself ? Upon what <Iid 

he hang himself? 
What did Joscphns say about Jesns Christ? What did he say 

aboat one of Christ's Apostles, and which one of the Apostles was it? 

What did he say about John the Baptist? When was Josephus born? When 

did he die? 



These and many other interesting questions are answered in 

CORLEY'S LIVES OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES. 



PRICE BY MAIL, ONE DOLLAR. 

Send Postoffice Money Order, or Money. Direct all communications to 

D. B. CORLEY, Abilene, Texas. 
Agrents Wanted Hi'erj'u'here. Liberal Inducements. 



